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SPEECHES 


OF 


WOODROW  WILSON 


Notable  Addresses  by  the  President  on  Great 
Public  Occasions,  Including 
Messages  to  Congress 


Current  History  as  Reflected  in  the  Public  Utterances  of  the 
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Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


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The  Eagle  Library,  ~1% 


INTRODUCTION 


HE  public  speeches  of  Woodrow  Wilson  since 
be  became  President  of  the  United  States  are 
not  many,  nor  are  they  long.  Yet  they  have 
made  a distinct  impression  on  the  public 
mind.  There  is  a widespread  idea  that,  at 
least  from  the  standpoint  of  literature  and 
lofty  ideals,  these  speeches  outrank  those  of 
*ny  President  since  the  days  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

They  represent  a comparatively  new  side  of  Woodrow  Wil- 
son; certainly  they  have  within  the  past  two  years  revealed 
that  side  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  for  the  first  time. 
Mr.  Wilson’s  professional  training  and  life  were  never  those  of 
the  orator.  He  was,  rather,  a student  in  seclusion.  For  many 
years  a master  of  pure  English,  it  was  the  English  of  the 
writer  rather  than  of  the  speaker.  Not  until  Mr.  Wilson  be- 
came a candidate  for  the  governorship  of  New  Jersey  did  the 
revelation  come  that  he  was  a platform  speaker  of  rare  skill 
and  felicity;  that  the  “college  professor”  could  strike  the  human 
note  with  extraordinary  force  and  that  the  man  of  the  class- 
room could  go  before  the  people  of  the  country  and  “think  on 
his  feet.” 

During  his  term  as  Governor  of  New  Jersey  Mr.  Wilson 
added  greatly  to  his  reputation  as  a public  speaker.  Even 
then,  as  now,  he  was  not  given  to  many  speeches.  But  when 
he  talked  he  had  something  to  say,  he  knew  how  to  say  it  and 
when  to  say  it;  he  displayed  a keen  realization  of  the  fact 
that  a long  speech  is  seldom  a great  speech,  and  he  had  the 
faculty  of  putting  his  ideas  into  words,  phrases  and  sentences 
that  have  steadily  given  emphasis  to  the  belief  that  he  creates 
literature  almost  offhand. 

After  he  became  President  his  audience  automatically  in- 
creased. It  included  not  only  the  people  of  all  States,  but  of 
all  political  parties.  Mr.  Wilson,  however,  did  not  increase  his 
output  because  of  that  fact.  Rather,  he  curtailed  it.  By  com- 
parison with  other  Presidents  of  recent  years,  he  speaks  seldom 
and  invariably  more  briefly.  Because  of  this,  the  audience 
never  seems  to  tire.  It  is  eager  to  listen  and  to  read. 

— President  Wilson’s  speeches  tduring  the  past  two  yearsj  fall 
into  two  classes — his  formal  addresses  to  Congress  and  his  ad- 
dresses  to  meetings  of  citizens.  The  method  of  preparation  is 

C Sifferent  in  each  case.  Mr.  Wilson  writes  and  reads  his  ad- 
* J dresses  to  Congress.  His  other  speeches  are  made  without 
—written  preparation. 

~ the  case  of  his  addresses  to  Congress,  when  he  revived 
. _ithe  custom  established  by  George  Washington  of  reading  them 

— in  person,  Mr,  Wilson  has  invariably  read  from  .manuscript. 
n It  can  be  saii>of  these  addresses  that  they  d<j  not  possess  the 
"5  charm  or  spontaneity  of  his  other  speeches.  But  there  is  a 

sound  reason  for  reading  them.  They  are,  in  a peculiar  sense, 


official  documents.  Every  word  must  be  weighed  for  its  ef- 
fect, every  idea  set  forth  with  a view  to  the  fact  that  it  is  being 
submitted  to  another  branch  of  the  government  for  formal 
consideration.  His  speeches  outside  of  Congress  possess  less  of 
an  official  character,  despite  the  fact  that  it  is,  of  course,  im- 
possible to  separate  a Bfcesident  from  his  office  when  he  opens 
bis  lips  to  speak.  ^ 

His  mind  is  always  prepared.  He  has  trained  it  to  be  or- 
derly, precise  and  attentive  to  the  matter  in  hand.  It  is  his 
alert  obedient  servant.  He  does  not  talk  on  subjects  of  which 
he  has  no  knowledge,  so  that  always  there  is  a solid  foundation 
for  what  he  says. 

Usually  the  President  makes  some  notes  of  what  he  pro- 
poses to  say.  Knowing  his  subject  generally,  he  subdivides  it. 
He  gets  clearly  in  his  mind  the  chief  points  that  he  proposes 
to  make  and  he  sets  down  a memorandum  of  them.  Beyond 
that,  he  depends  upon  himself  and  the  occasion,  The  President 
is  not  a slave  to  his  notes.  Rather,  he  is  apt  to  regard 
voluminous  notes  as  a handicap;  he  is  restive  under  the  re- 
strain they  impose.  He  prefers  to  be  unleashed  when  he  talks. 

Mr.  Wilson  thinks  quickly  when  facing  n public  audience 
ind  apparently  with  the  same  ease  and  freedom  as  when  sit- 
ting in  his  library.  He  does  not  hesitate  for  words. 

He  is  exceptionally  alert  in  accommodating  himself  to  cir- 
cumstances. An  instance  of  this  took  place  when  he  was 
Governor  of  New  Jersey.  He  was  invited  to  address  a public 
meeting  on  the  subject  of  conservation.  Governor  Wilson  pre- 
pared, in  notes,  the  outline  of  an  address  on  conservation  of 
natural  resources.  He  arrived  upon  the  platform  of  the  meet- 
ing to  discover  that  he  was  facing  an  audience  met  to  consider 
the  conservation  of  human  resources.  The  situation  did  not 
dismay  him  nor  embarrass  him.  He  had  some  ideas  upon 
human  as  well  as  natural  resources.  He  proceeded  to  state 
them,  after  he  had  been  set  right  upon  his  topic,  with  an  ease 
and  continuity  that  suggested  to  all  who  heard  him  a carefully 
prepared  address.  Yet  it  was  prepared  only  in  the  sense  that 
the  man’s  mind  was  prepared  by  native  ability  and  long  train- 
ing for  just  such  a situation. 

The  President,  like  other  speakers  who  do  not  prepare  an 
exact  copy  in  advance,  runs  the  risk  of  uttering  an  inadvertent 
or  unwise  phrase.  Yet  he  rarely  meets  with  the  pitfaTl. 

A mind  less  accurately  trained  would  run  great  risks  in 
following  the  method  pursued  by  the  President  in  his  average 
public  speech.  In  his  case  the  risk  is  small.  And,  in  addi- 
tion fo  the  well  trained  mind,  (he  President  has  always  at  his 
command  a vocabulary  of  clear  and  correct  English  which  he 
calls  into  play  with  a naturalness  au<i  case  that-  constitutes 
much  of  the  charm  and  distinctive  character- of  his  public 
speeches. 


P 394*4 


The  Eagle  Library. 


CONTENTS 


SPEECHES  AND  MESSAGES 


Page 

On  Welfare  and  Progress  of  the  Nation.... 5 

Inaugural  Address  - 7 

On  Tariff  Alterations  8 

On  Banking  and  Currency  System  9 

Gettysburg  July  4th  Speech  „ . . 10 

On  Mexican  Affairs  11 

Occasion  of  Rededication  of  Congress  Hall  12 

At  Swarthmore  College  13 

Southern  Commercial  Congress,  at  Mobile,  Ala 14 

On  Trusts  and  Monopolies  15 

On  the  “Flag  Incident”  in  Mexico  17 

Services  in  Memory  of  Those  Who  Lost  Their  Lives  at  Vera 

Cruz,  Mexico  18 

On  Unveiling  of  the  Statue  to  the  Memory  of  Commodore 

John  Barry  18 

Memorial  Address  at  Arlington,  Pa „ 19 

To  Graduating  Class  of  U.  S.  Naval  Academy  20 

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Accepting  the  Monument  in  Memory  of  Confederate  Dead  at 


Arlington  National  Cemetery 21 

July  4th  Anniversary  at  Independence  Hall  21 

War  Emergency  Tax 23 

Letter  to  Hon.  Oscar  Underwood 24 

Before  American  Bar  Association  26 

Pittsburg  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Celebration  26 

Jackson  Day  at  Indianapolis,  Ind 28 

Message  to  Congress  Relative  to  Immigration  of  Aliens 31 

Mid-Year  Conference  of  American  Electric  Railway  Association  32 

United  States  Chamber  of  Commerce 34 

At  Associated  Press  Luncheon  37 

On  Citizenship — At  Convention  Hall,  Philadelphia 38 

On  American  Neutrality,  An  Appeal  39 

Official  Text  of  Third  U.  S.  Note  to  Germany  and  Text  of  j 


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SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATS 

DELIVERED  AT  A JOINT  SESSION  OF  THE 
TWO  HOUSES  OF  CONGRESS 

DECEMBER  2,  1913 


ON  THE  WELFARE  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  NATION 


ENTLEMEN  of  the  Congress: 
In  pursuance  of  my  consti- 
tutional duty  to  “give  to  the 
Congress  information  of  the 
state  of  the  Union,”  I take 
the  liberty  of  addressing  you  on  sev- 
eral matters  which  ought,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  particularly  to  engage  the  at- 
tention of  your  honorable  bodies,  as  of 
all  who  study  the  welfare  and  prog- 
ress of  the  nation. 

I shall  ask  your  indulgence  if  I 
venture  to  depart  in  some  degree  from 
the  usual  custom  of  settling  before 
you  in  formal  review  the  many  mat- 
ters which  have  engaged  the  attention 
and  called  for  the  action  of  the  sev- 
eral departments  of  the  Government 
or  which  look  to  them  for  early  treat- 
ment in  the  future,  because  the  list  is 
long,  very  long,  and  would  suffer  in 
the  abbreviation  to  which  I should 
have  to  subject  it.  I shall  submit  to 
you  the  reports  of  the  heads  of  the 
several  departments,  in  which  these 
subjects  are  set  forth  in  careful  detail 
and  beg  that  they  may  receive  the 
thoughtful  attention  of  your  commit- 
tees and  of  all  members  of  the  Con- 
gress who  may  have  the  leisure  to 
study  them.  Their  obvious  impor- 
tance, as  constituting  the  very  sub- 
stance of  the  business  of  the  Govern- 
ment, makes  comment  and  emphasis 
on  my  part  unnecessary. 

The  country,  I am  thankful  to  say, 
Is  at  peace  with  all  the  world,  and 
many  happy  manifestations  multiply 
about  us  of  a growing  cordiality  and 
sense  of  community  of  interest  among 
the  nations,  foreshadowing  an  age  of 
settled  paace  and  good  will.  More 
and  more  readily  e-tiiEh  decade  do  the 
nations  manifest  their  willingness  to 
bind  themselves  by  solemn  treaty  to 
the  processes  of  peace,  the  processes 
of  frankness  and  fair  concession.  So 
far  the  United  States  has  stood  at  the 
front  of  such  negotiations.  She  will, 
I earnestly  hope  and  confidently  be- 
lieve, give  fresh  proof  of  her  sincere 
adherence  to  the  cause  of  interna- 


tional friendship  by  ratifying  the  sev- 
eral treaties  of  arbitration  awaiting 
renewal  by  the  Senate.  In  addition  to 
these,  it  has  been  the  privilege  of  the 
Department  of  State  to  gain  the  as- 
sent, in  principle,  of  no  less  than 
thirty-one  nations,  representing  four- 
fifths  of  the  population  of  the  world, 
to  the  negotiation  of  treaties  by  which 
it  shall  be  agreed  that  whenever  dif- 
ferences of  interest  or  of  policy  arise 
which  cannot  be  resilved  by  the  or- 
dinary processes  of  diplomacy  they 
shall  be  publicly  analyzed,  discussed, 
and  reported  upon  by  a tribunal 
chosen  by  the  parties  before  either 
nation  determines  its  course  of  action. 

There  is  only  one  possible  standard 
by  which  to  determine  controversies 
between  the  United  States  and  other 
nations,  and  that  is  compounded  of 
these  two  elements:  Our  own  honor 
and  our  obligations  to  the  peace  of 
the  world.  A test  so  compounded 
ought  easily  to  be  made  to  govern 
both  the  establishment  of  new  treaty 
obligations  and  the  interpretation  of 
those  already  assumed. 

There  is  but  one  cloud  upon  our 
horizon.  That  has  shown  itself  to  the 
south  of  us,  and  hangs  over  Mexico. 
There  can  be  no  certain  prospect  of 
£>eace  in  America  until  General 
Huerta  has  surrendered  his  usurped 
authority  in  Mexico:  until  it  is  under- 
stood on  all  hands,  indeed,  that  such 
pretended  governments  will  not  be 
countenanced  or  dealt  with  by  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  We 
are  the  friends  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment in  America:  we  are  mere 
than  its  friends,  we  are  its  cham- 
pircas;  became  in  no  other  way  can 
our  neighbors,  to  whom  we  would 
wish  in  every  way  to  make  proof  of 
our  friendship,  work  out  their  own 
development  in  peace  and  liberty. 
Mexico  has  no  government.  The  at- 
tempt to  maintain  one  at  the  City  of 
Mexico  has  broken  down,  and  a mere 
military  despotism  has  been  set  up 
which  has  hardly  more  than  the  sem- 


blance of  national  authority.  It  orig- 
inated in  the  usurpation  of  Victoriano 
Huerta,  who,  after  a brief  attempt  to 
play  the  part  of  constitutional  presi- 
dent, has  at  last  cast  aside  even  the 
pretense  of  legal  right  and  declared 
himself  dictator.  As  a consequence,  a 
condition  of  affairs  now  exists  in 
Mexico  which  has  made  it  doubtful 
whether  even  the  most  elementary 
and  fundamental  rights  either  of  her 
own  people  or  of  the  citizens  of  other 
countries  resident  within  her  territory 
can  long  be  successfully  safeguarded, 
and  which  threatens,  if  long  con- 
tinued, to  imperil  the  interests  of 
peace,  order,  and  tolerable  life  in  the 
lands  immediately  to  the  south  of  us. 
Even  if  the  usurper  had  succeeded  in 
his  purposes,  in  despite  of  the  consti- 
tution of  the  republic  and  the  rights 
of  its  people,  he  would  have  set  up 
nothing  but  a precarious  and  hateful 
power,  which  could  have  lasted  but 
a little  while,  and  whose  eventual 
downfall  would  have  left  the  country 
in  a more  deplorable  condition  than 
ever.  But  he  has  not  succeeded.  He 
has  forfeited  the  respect  and  the 
moral  support  even  of  those  who  were 
at  one  time  willing  to  see  him  suc- 
ceed. Little  by  little  he  has  been 
completely  isolated.  By  a little  every 
day  his  power  and  prestige  are  crum- 
bling and  the  collapse  is  not  far  away. 
We  shall  not,  I believe,  be  obliged  to 
alter  our  policy  of  watchful  waiting. 
And  then,  when  the  end  comes,  we 
shall  hope  to  see  constitutional  order 
restored  in  distressed  Mexico  by  the 
concert  and  energy  of  such  of  her 
j leaders  as  prefer  the  liberty  of  their 
people  to  their  own  ambitions. 

I turn  to  matters  of  domestic  con- 
cern. You  already  have  under  con- 
sideration a bill  for  the  reform  of  our 
system  of  banking  and  currency,  for 
which  the  country  waits  with  impa- 
tience, as  for  something  fundamental 
to  its  whole  business  life  and  neces- 
sary to  set  credit  free  from  arbitrary 
and  artificial  restraints.  I need  not 
say  how  earnestly  I hope  for  its  early 
enactment  into  law.  I take  leave  to 
beg. that  the  whole  energy  and  atten- 
tion of  the  Senate  be  concentrated 
upon  it  till  the  matter  is  successfully 
disposed  of.  And  5><r i 1 feel 
request  is  not  needed — that  the  mem- 
bers of  that  great  House  need  no  urg- 
ing in  this  service  to  the  country. 

I present  to  you,  in  addition,  the 
urgent  necessity  that  special  provis- 
ion be  made  also  for  facilitating  the 
credits  needed  by  the  farmers  of  the 
country.  The  pending  currency  bill 


6 


Eagle  Library— -SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


does  the  farmers  a great  service.  It 
puts  them  upon  an  equal  footing  with 
other  business  men  and  masters  of  en- 
terprise, as  it  should;  and  upon  its 
passage  they  will  find  themselves  quit 
of  many  of  the  difficulties  which  now 
hamper  them  in  the  field  of  credit. 
The  farmers,  of  course,  ask  and 
should  be  given  no  special  privilege, 
such  as  extending  to  them  the  credit 
of  the  Government  itself.  What  they 
need  and  should  obtain  is  legislation 
which  will  make  their  .own  abundant 
and  substantial  credit  resources  avail- 
able as  a foundation  for  joint,  con- 
certed local  action  in  their  own  behalf 
in  getting  the  capital  they  must  use. 
It  is  to  this  we  should  now  address 
ourselves. 

It  has,  singularly  enough,  come  to 
pass  that  we  have  allowed  the  indus- 
try of  our  farms  to  lag  behind  the 
other  activities  of  the  country  in  its 
development.  I need  not  stop  to  tell 
you  know  fundamental  to  the  life  of 
the  nation  is  the  production  of  its 
food.  Our  thoughts  may  ordinarily 
be  concentrated  upon  the  cities  and 
the  hives  of  industry,  upon  the  cries 
of  the  crowded  market  place  and  the 
clangor  of  the  factory,  but  It  is  from 
the  quiet  interspaces  of  the  open  val- 
leys and  the  free  hillsides  that  we 
draw  the  sources  of  life  and  of  pros- 
perity, from  the  farm  and  the  ranch, 
from  the  forest  and  th^  mine.  With- 
out these  every  street  would  be  silent, 
every  office  deserted,  every  factory 
fallen  into  disrepair.  And  yet  the 
farmer  does  not  stand  upon  the  same 
footing  with  the  forester  and  the 
miner  in  the  market  of  credit.  He  is 
the  servant  of  the  seasons.  Nature 
determines  how  long  he  must  wait  for 
his  crops,  and  will  not  be  hurried  in 
her  processes.  He  may  give  his  note, 
but  the  season  of  its  maturity  depends 
upon  the  season  when  his  crop  ma- 
tures, lies  at  the  gates  of  the  market 
where  his  products  are  sold.  And  the 
security  he  gives  is  of  a character  not 
known  in  the  broker's  office  or  as  fa- 
miliarly as  it  might  be  on  the  counter 
of  the  banker. 

The  Agricultural  Department  of  the 
Government  is  seeking  to  assist  as 
never  before  to  make  farming  an  ef- 
ficient business,  of  wide  co-operative 
effort,  in  quick  touch  with  the  mar- 
kets for  foodstuffs.  The  farmers  and 
•.tie  Government  will  henceforth  work 
together  as  real  partners  in  this  field, 
where  we  now  begin  to  see  our  way 
very  clearly  and  where  many  intelli- 
gent plans  are  already  being  put  into 
execution.  The  Treasury  of  the  United 
States  has,  by  a timely  and  well  con- 
sidered distribution  of  its  deposits, 
facilitated  the  moving  of  ^he  crops  in 
the  present  season  and  prevented  the 
scarcity  of  available  funds  too  often 
experienced  at  such  time.  But  we 
must  not  allow  ourselves  to  depend 
upon  extraordinary  expedients.  We 
must  add  the  means  by  which  the  far- 
mer may  make  his  credit  constantly 
and  easily  available  and  command 
when  he  will  the  capital  by  which  to 
support  and  expand  his  busiftess.  We 
lag  behind  many  other  great  countries 
of  the  modern  world  in  attempting 
to  do  this.  Systems  of  rural  credit 


have  been  studied  and  developed  on 
the  other  side  of  the  water  while  we 
left  our  farmers  to  shift  for  them- 
selves in  the  ordinary  money  market. 
You  have  but  to  look  about  you  in  any 
rural  district  to  see  the  result,  the 
handicap  and  embarrassment  which 
have  been  put  upon  those  who  pro- 
duce our  food. 

Conscious  of  this  backwardness 
and  neglect  on  our  part,  the  Congress 
recently  authorized  the  creation  of 
a special  commission  to  study 
the  various  systems  of  rural  credit 
which  have  been  put  into  operation 
in  Europe,  and  this  commission  is  al- 
ready prepared  to  report.  Its  report 
ought  to  make  it  easier  for  us  to  de- 
termine what  methods  will  be  best 
suited  to  our  own  farmers.  I hope 
and  believe  that  the  committees  of 
the  Senate  and  House  will  address 
themselves  to  this  matter  with  the 
most  fruitful  results,  and  I believe 
that  the  studies  and  recently  formed 
plans  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture may  be  made  to  serve  them  very 
greatly  in  their  work  of  framing  ap- 
propriate and  adequate  legislation.  It 
would  be  indiscreet  and  presumptuous 
in  anyone  to  dogmatize  upon  so  great 
and  many-sided  a question,  but  I feel 
confident  that  common  counsel  will 
produce  the  results  we  must  all  de- 
sire. 

Turn  from  the  farm  to  the  world  of 
business  which  centers  in  the  city  and 
in  the  factory,  and  I think  that  all 
thoughtful  observers  will  agree  that 
the  immediate  service  we  owe  the 
business  communities  of  the  country 
is  to  prevent  private  monopoly  more 
effectually  than  it  has  yet  been  pre- 
vented. I think  it  will  be  easily 
agreed  that  we  should  let  the  Sher- 
man anti-trust  law  stand,  unaltered, 
as  it  is,  with  its  debatable  ground 
about  it,  but  that  we  should  as  much 
as  possible  reduce  the  area  of  that 
debatable  ground  by  further  and 
more  explicit  legislation;  and  should 
also  supplement  that  great  act  by 
legislation  which  will  not  only  clarify 
it  but  also  facilitate  its  administra- 
tion and  make  it  fairer  to  all  con- 
cerned. No  doubt  we  shall  all  wish, 
and  the  country  will  expect,  this  to  be 
the  central  subject  of  our  delibera- 
tions during  the  present  session;  but 
it  is  a subject  so  many-sided  and  so 
deserving  of  careful  and  discriminat- 
ing discussion  that  I shall  take  the 
liberty  of  addressing  you^  upon  it  in 
a special  message  at  a later  date 
than  this.  It  is  of  capital  impor- 
tance that  the  business  men  of  this 
country  should  be  relieved  of  all  un- 
certainties of  law  with  regard  to  their 
enterprises  and  investments  and  a 
clear  path  indicated  which  they  can 
travel  without  anxiety.  It  is  as  im- 
portant that  they  should  be  relieved 
of  embarrassment  and  set  free  to 
prosper  as  that  private  monopoly 
should  be  destroyed.  ■ The  ways  of 
action  should  be  thrown  wide  open. 

I turn  to  a subject  which  I hope 
can  be  handled  promptly  and  with- 
out serious  contfoversy  of  any  kind. 
I mean  the  method  of  selecting  nomi- 
nees for  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States.  I feel  confident  that  I do  not 
misinterpret  the  wishes  or  the  ex- 


pectations of  the  country  when  I urge 
the  prompt  enactment  of  legislation 
which  will  provide  for  primary  elec- 
tions throughout  the  country  at  which 
the  voters  of  the  several  parties  may 
choose  their  nominees  for  the  Presi- 
dency without  the  intervention  of 
nominating  conventions.  I venture 
the  suggestion  that  this  legislation 
should  provide  for  the  retention  of 
party  conventions,  but  only  for  the 
purpose  of  declaring  and  accepting 
the  verdict  of  the  primaries  and  for- 
mulating the  platforms  of  the  parties; 
and  I suggest  that  these  conventions 
should  consist  not  of  delegates  chosen 
for  this  single  purpose,  but  of  the 
nominees  for  Congress,  the  nominees 
for  vacant  seats  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  the  Senators  whose 
terms  have  not  yet  closed,  the  na- 
tional committees,  and  the  candidates 
for  the  Presidency  themselves,  in  or- 
der that  platforms  may  be  framed  by 
those  responsible  to  the  people  for 
carrying  them  into  effect. 

These  are  all  matters  of  vital  do- 
mestic concern,  and  besides  them,  out- 
side the  charmed  circle  of  our  own 
national  life  in  which  our  affections 
command  us,  as  well  as  our  con- 
sciences, there  stand  out  our  obliga- 
tions toward  our  territories  over  sea. 
Here  we  are  trustees.  Porto  Rico, 
Hawaii,  the  Philippines,  are  ours,  in- 
deed, but  not  ours  to  do  what  we 
please  with.  Such  territories,  once 
regarded  as  mere  possessions,  are  no 
longer  to  be  selfishly  exploited;  they 
are  part  of  the  domain  of  public  con- 
science and  of  serviceable  and  en- 
lightened statesmanship.  We  must 
administer  them  for  the  people  who 
live  in  them  and  with  the  same  sense 
of  responsibility  to  them  as  toward 
our  own  people  in  our  domestic  af- 
fairs. No  doubt  we  shall  successfully 
enough  bind  Porto  Rico  and  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  to  ourselves  by  ties 
of  justice  and  interest  and  affection, 
but  the  performance  of  our  duty 
toward  the  Philippines  is  a more  diffi- 
cult and  debatable  matter.  We  can 
satisfy  the  obligations  of  generous 
justice  toward  the  people  of  Porto 
Rico  by  giving  them  the  ample  and 
familiar  rights  and  privileges  accord- 
ed our  own  citizens  in  our  own  terri- 
tories and  our  obligations  toward  the 
people  of  Hawaii  by  perfecting  the 
provisions  for  self-government  already 
granted  them,  but  in  the  Phillippines 
we  must  go  further.  We  must  hold 
steadily  in  view  their  ultimate  inde- 
pendence and  we  must  move  toward 
the  time  of  that  independence  as 
steadily  as  the  way  can  be  cleared  and 
*he  foundations  thoughtfully  and  per- 
manently laid. 

Acting  under  the  authority  con- 
ferred upon  the  President  by  Con- 
gress, I have  already  accorded  the 
people  of  the  islands  a majority  in 
both  houses  of  their  legislative  body 
by  appointing  five  instead  of  four 
native  citizens  to  the  membership  of 
the  Commission.  I believe  that  in 
this  way  we  shall  make  proof  of  their 
capacity  in  counsel  and  their  sense  of 
responsibility  in  the  exercise  of  po- 
litical power,  and  that  the  success  of 
this  step  will  be  sure  to  clear  our 
view  for  the  steps  which  are  to  fol- 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


low.  Step  by  step  we  should  extend 
and  perfect  the  system  of  self-gov-  | 
ernment  in  the  islands,  making  test  of  I 
them  and  modifying  them  as  experi- 
ence discloses  their  successes  and  their 
failures;  that  we  should  more  and 
more  put  under  the  control  of  the 
native  citizens  of  the  archipelago  the 
essential  instruments  of  their  life, 
their  local  instrumentalities  of  gov- 
ernment, their  schools,  all  the  com- 
mon interests  of  their  communities, 
and  so  by  counsel  and  experience  set 
up  a government  which  all  the  world 
will  see  to  be  suitable  to  a people 
whose  affairs  are  under  their  own 
control.  At  last,  I hope  and  believe, 
we  are  beginning  to  gain  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Filipino  peoples.  By 
their  counsel  and  experience,  rather 
than  by  our  own,  we  shall  learn  how 
best  to  serve  them  and  how  soon  it 
will  be  possible  and  wise  to  withdraw 
our  supervision.  Let  us  once  find  the 
path  and  set  out  with  firm  and  con- 
fident tread  upon  it  and  we  shall  not 
wander  from  it  or  linger  upon  it. 

A duty  faces  us  with  regard  to 
Alaska  which  seems  to  me  very  press- 
ing and  very  imperative;  perhaps  I 
should  say  a double  duty,  for  it  con- 
cerns both  the  political  and  the  ma- 
terial development  of  the  Territory. 
The  people  of  Alaska  should  be  given 
the  full  Territorial  form  of  govern- 
ment, and  Alaska,  as  a storehouse, 
should  be  unlocked.  One  key  to  it  is  a 
system  of  railways.  These  the  Gov- 
ernment should  itself  build  and  ad- 
minister, and  the  ports  ar.d  terminals 
it  should  itself  control  in  the  interest 
of  all  who  wish  to  use  them  for  the 
service  and  development  of  the  coun- 
try and  its  people. 

But  the  construction  of  railways  is 
only  the  first  step;  is  only  thrusting 
in  the  key  to  the  storehouse  and 
throwing  back  the  lock  and  opening 
the  door.  How  the  tempting  re- 
sources of  the  country  are  to  be  ex- 
ploited is  another  matter,  to  which  I 
shall  take  the  liberty  of  from  time 
to  time  calling  your  attention,  for  it 
is  a policy  which  must  be  worked 
out  by  well-considered  stages,  not 
upon  theory,  but  upon  lines  of  prac- 
tical expediency.  It  is  part  of  our ' 
general  problem  of  conservation.  We 
have  a freer  hand  in  working  out 
the  problem  in  Alaska  than  in  the 
States  of  the  Union;  and  yet  the  prin- 
ciple and  object  are  the  same,  wher- 
ever we  touch  it.  We  must  use  the 
resources  of  the  country,  not  lock 
them  up.  There  need  be  no  conflict 
or  jealousy  as  between  State  and  Fed- 
eral authorities,  for  there  can  be  no 
essential  difference  of  purpose  be- 
tween thefn.  The  resources  in  ques- 
tion must  be  used,  but  not  destroyed 
or  wasted;  used,  but  not  monopolized 
upon  any  narrow  idea  of  individual 
rights  as  against  the  abiding  interests 
of  communities.  That  a policy  can 
be  worked  out  by  conference  and  con- 
cession which  will  release  these  re- 
sources and  yet  not  jeopard  or  dissi- 
pate them,  I for  one  have  no  doubt;  ! 
and  it  can  be  done  on  lines  of  regu-  I 
lation  which  need  be  no  less  accept- 
able to  the  people  and  governments 
of  the  States  concerned  than  to  the 
people  and  Government  of  the  nation 
at  large,  whost  heritage  these  re- 
sources are.  We  must  bend  our  coun- 
sels to  this  end.  A common  purpose 
ought  to  make  agreement  easy. 

Three  or  four  matters  of  special  im- 
portance and  significance  I beg  that 
you  will  permit  me  to  mention  in  clos-  j 
ing. 

Our  Bureau  of  Mines  ought  to  be ! 
equipped  and  empowered  to  render 
even  more  effectual  service  than  it 
renders  now  in  improving  the  condi- 
tions of  mine  labor  and  making  the 
mines  more  economically  productive 
as  well  as  more  safe.  This  is  an  all- 
important  part  of  the  work  of  con- 
serration;  and  the  conservation  of  hu- , 


man  life  and  energy  lies  even  nearer 
to  our  interest  than  the  preservation 
from  waste  of  our  material  resources. 

We  owe  it,  in  mere  justice  to  the 
railway  employees  of  the  country,  to 
provide  for  them  a fair  and  effective 
employers  liability  act;  and  a law  that 
we  can  stand  by  in  this  matter  will 
be  no  less  to  the  advantage  of  those 
who  administer  the  railroads  of  the 
country  than  to  the  advantage  of 
those  whom  they  employ.  The  ex- 
perience of  a large  number  of  the 
States  abundantly  proves  that. 

We  ought  to  devote  ourselves  to 
meeting  pressing  demands  of  plain 
justice  like  this  as  earnestly  as  to  the 
accomplishment  of  political  and  eco- 
nomic reforms.  Social  justice  comes 
first.  Law  is  the  machinery  for  its 
realization  and  is  vital  only  as  it  ex- 
presses and  embodies  it. 

An  international  congress  for  the  I 
discussion  of  all  questions  that  affect 
safety  at  sea  is  now  sitting  in  London 
at  the  suggestion  of  our  own  Govern- 
ment. So  soon  as  the  conclusions  of 
that  congress  can  be  learned  and  con- 
sidered we  ought  to  address  ourselves, 
among  other  things,  to  the  prompt 


alleviation  of  the  very  unsafe,  unjust, 
and  burdensome  conditions  Which  now 
surround  the  employment  of  sailors 
and  render  it  extremely  difficult  to 
obtain  the  services  of  spirited  and 
competent  men  such  as  every  ship 
needs  If  it  is  to  be  safely  handled  and 
brought  to  port. 

May  I not  express  the  very  real 
pleasure  I have  experienced  in  co- 
operating with  this  Congress  and 
sharing  with  it  the  labors  of  common 
service  to  which  it  has  devoted  itself 
so  unreservedly  during  the  past  seven 
months  of  uncomplaining  concentra- 
tion upon  the  business  of  legislation? 
Surely  it  is  a proper  and  pertinent 
part  of  my  report  on  “the  state  of  the 
Union”  to  express  my  admiration  for 
the  diligence,  the  good  temper,  and 
the  full  comprehension  of  public  duty 
which  has  already  been  manifested  by 
both  the  Houses;  and  I hope  that  it 
may  not  be  deemed  an  impertinent 
Intrusion  of  myself  into  the  picture  if 
I say  with  how  much  and  how  con- 
stant satisfaction  I have  availed  my- 
self of  the  privilege  of  putting  my 
time  and  energy  at  their  disposal 
alike  in  counsel  and  in  action. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 

OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  CAPITOL,  MARCH  4,  1913 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 


T 


HERE  has  been  a change  of 
government.  It  began  two 
years  ago,  when  the  House  of 
Representatives  became  Dem- 
ocratic by  a decisive  major- 
ity. It  has  now  been  completed.  The 
Senate  about  to  assemble  will  be  Dem- 
ocratic. The  offices  of  President  and 
Vice  President  have  been  put  into  the 
hands  of  Democrats.  What  does  the 
change  mean?  That  is  the  question 
that  is  uppermost  in  our  minds  today. 
That  is  the  question  I am  going  to 
try  to  answer,  in  order,  if  I may,  to 
interpret  the  occasion. 
t^It  means  much  more  than  the  mere 
success  of  a party.  The  success  of  a 
party  means  little  except  when  the 
Nation  is  using  that  party  for  a large 
and  definite  purpose.)  No  one  can  mis- 
take the  purpose  for  which  the  Nation 
now  seeks  to  use  the  Democratic  Party. 
It  seeks  to  use  it  to  interpret  a change 
in  its  own  plans  and  point  of  view. 
Some  old  things  with  which  we  had 
grown  familiar,  and  which  had  begun 
to  creep  into  the  very  habit  of  our 
thought  and  of  our  lives,  have  altered 
their  aspect  as  we  have  latterly  looked 
critically  upon  them,  with  fresh,  awak- 
ened eyes;  have  dropped  their  dis- 
guises and  shown  themselves  alien  and 
sinister.  Some  new  things,  as  we  look 
frankly  upon  them,  willing  to  compre- 
hend their  real  character,  have  come 
to  assume  the  aspect  of  things  long 
believed  in  and  familiar,  stuff  of  our 
own  convictions.  We  have  been  re- 
freshed by  a new  insight  into  our  own 
life. 

We  see  that  in  many  things  that  life 
is  very  great.  It  is  incomparably  great 
in  its  material  aspects,  in  its  body  of 
wealth,  in  the  diversity  and  sweep  of 


its  energy,  in  the  industries  which  have 
been  conceived  and  built  up  by  the 
genius  of  individual  men  and  the  limit- 
less enterprise  of  groups  of  men.  It  is 
great,  also,  very  great,  in  its  moral 
force.  Nowhere  else  in  the  world  have 
noble  men  and  women  exhibited  in 
more  striking  forms  the  beauty  and 
the  energy  of  sympathy  and  helpful- 
ness and  counsel  in  their  efforts  to 
rectify  wrong,  alleviate  suffering,  and 
set  the  weak  in  the  way  of  strength 
and  hope.  We  have  built  up,  more- 
over, a great  system  of  government, 
which  has  stood  through  a long  age  as 
in  many  respects  a model  for  those 
who  seek  to  set  liberty  upon  founda- 
tions that  will  endure  against  fortu- 
itous change,  against  storm  and  acci- 
dent. Our  life  contains  every  great 
thing,  and  contains  it  in  rich  abun- 
dance. 

But  the  evil  has  come  with  the  good, 
and  much  fine  gold  has  been  corroded. 
With  riches  has  come  inexcusable 
waste.  We  have  squandered  a great 
part  of  what  we  might  have  used,  and 
have  not  stopped  to  conserve  the  ex- 
ceeding bounty  of  nature,  without 
which  our  genius  for  enterprise  would 
have  been  worthless  and  Impotent, 
scorning  to  be  careful,  shamefully 
prodigal  as  well  as  admirably  efficient. 
We  have  been  proud  of  our  indus- 
trial achievements,  but  we  have  not 
hitherto  stopped  thoughtfully  enough 
to  count  the  humin  cost,  the  cost  of 
lives  snuffed  out,  of  energies  over- 
taxed and  broken,  the  fearful  physical 
and  spiritual  cost  to  the  men  and 
women  and  children  upon  whom  the 
dead  weight  and  burden  of  it  all  has 
fallen  pitilessly  the  years  through. 
The  groans  and  agony  of  it  all  had 


8 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


not  yet  reached  our  ears,  the  solemn, 
moving  undertone  of  our  life,  com- 
ing up  out  of  the  mines  and  factories 
and  out  of  every  home  where  the 
struggle  had  its  intimate  and  familiar 
seat.  With  the  great  Government 
went  many  deep  secret  things  which 
we  too  long  delayed  to  look  into  and 
scrutinize  with  candid,  fearless  eyes. 
The  great  Government  we  loved  has 
too  often  been  made  use  of  for  private 
and  selfish  purposes,  and  those  who 
used  it  had  forgotten  the  people. 

At  last  a vision  has  been  vouchsafed 
us  of  our  life  as  a whole.  We  see  the 
bad  and  the  good,  the  debased  and  de- 
cadent with  the  sound  and  vital.  With 
this  vision  we  approach  new  affairs. 
Our  duty  is  to  cleanse,  to  reconsider, 
to  restore,  to  correct  the  evil  without 
impairing  the  good,  to  purify  and 
humanize  every  process  of  our  com- 
mon life  without  weakening  or  senti- 
mentalizing it.  There  has  been  some- 
thing crude  and  heartless  and  unfeel- 
ing in  our  haste  to  succeed  and  be 
great.  Our  thought  has  been  “Let 
every  man  look  out  for  himself,  let 
every  generation  look  out  for  itself,” 
while  we  reared  giant  machinery 
which  made  it  impossible  that  any  but 
those  who  stood  at  the  levers  of  con- 
trol should  have  a chance  to  look  out 
for  themselves.  We  had  not  forgot- 
ten our  morals.  We  remembered  Well 
enough  that  we  had  set  up  a policy 
which  was  meant  to  serve  the  hum- 
blest as  well  as  the  most  powerful,  with 
an  eye  single  to  the  standards  of  jus- 
tice and  fair  play,  and  remembered  it 
with  pride.  But  we  were  very  heed- 
less and  in  a hurry  to  be  great. 

We  have  come  now  to  the  sober 
second  thought.  The  scales  of  heed- 
lessness have  fallen  from  our  eyes.  We 
have  made  up  our  minds  to  square 
every  process  of  our  national  life 
again  with  the  standards  we  so  proud- 
ly set  up  at  the  beginning  and  have 
always  carried  at  our  hearts.  Our 
work  is  a work  of  restoration. 

We  have  itemized  with  some  de- 
gree of  paticularity  the  things  that 
ought  to  be  altered  and  here  are  some 
of  the  chief  items:  A tariff  which  cuts 

us  off  from  our  proper  part  in  the 
commerce  of  the  world  violates  the 
juct  principles  of  taxation,  and  makes 
the  Government  a facile  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  private  interests;  a bank- 
ing and  currency  system  based  upon 
the  necessity  of  the  Government  to  sell 
its  bonds  fifty  years  ago  and  perfect- 
ly adapted  to  concentrating  cash  and 
restricting  credits;  an  industrial  sys- 
tem which,  take  it  on  all  its  sides, 
financial  as  well  as  administrative, 
holds  capital  in  leading  strings,  re- 
stricts the  liberties  and  limits  the  op- 
portunities of  labor  and  exploits  with- 
out renewing  or  conserving  the  na- 
tural resources  of  the  country;  a body 
of  agricultural  activities  never  yet 
given  the  efficiency  of  great  business 
undertakings  or  served  as  it  should  be 
through  the  instrumentality  of  science 
taken  directly  to  the  farm,  or  afford- 
ed the  facilities  of  credit  best  suited 
to  its  practical  needs;  watercourses 
undeveloped,  waste  places  unre- 
cbaifned,  forests  untended,  fast  disap- 
pearing without  plan  or  prospect  of 
renewal,  unregarded  waste  heaps  at 
every  mine.  We  have  studied  as  per- 
haps no  other  nation  has  the  most  ef- 
fective means  of  production,  but  we 
have  not  studied  cost  or  economy  as 
we  should  either  as  organizers  of  in- 
dustry, as  statesmen,  or  as  individuals. 

Nor  have  we  studied  and  perfected 
the  means  by  which  Government  may 
be  put  at  the  service  of  humanity,  in 
safeguarding  the  health  of  the  Nation, 
the  health  of  its  men  and  its  women 
and  its  children,  as  well  as  their  rights 
in  the  struggle  for  existence.  This  is 
no  sentimental  duty.  The  firm  basis 
of  Government  is  justice,  not  pity. 
These  are  matters  of  justice.  Thera 
can  be  no  equality  or  opportunity,  the 


first  essential  of  justice  in  the  body 
politic,  if  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren be  not  shielded  in  their  lives, 
their  very  vitality,  from  the  con- 
sequences of  great  industrial  and  so- 
cial processes  which  they  can  not 
alter,  control,  or  singly  cope  with.  So- 
ciety must  see  to  it  that  it  does  not 
itself  crush  or  weaken  or  damage  its 
own  constituent  parts.  The  first  duty 
of  law  is  to  keep  sound  the  society  it 
serves.  Sanitary  laws,  pure  food  laws, 
and  laws  determining  conditions  of 
labor  which  individuals  are  powerless 
to  determine  for  themselves  are  inti- 
mate parts  of  the  very  business  of  Jus- 
tice and  legal  efficiency. 

These  are  some  of  the  things  we 
ought  to  do,  and  not  leave  the  others 
undone,  the  old-fashioned,  never-to- 
be-neglected,  fundamental  safeguard- 
ing of  property  and  of  individual  right. 
This  is  the  high  enterprise  of  the  new 
day:  To  lift  everything  that  concerns' 

our  life  as  a Nation  to  the  light  that 
shines  from  the  hearthfire  of  every 
man’s  conscience  and  vision  of  the 
right.  It  is  inconceivable  that  we 
should  do  this  as  partisans;  it  is  in- 
conceivable we  should  do  it  in  ignor- 
ance of  the  facts  as  they  are  or  in  blind 
haste.  We  shall  restore,  not  destroy. 
We  shall  deal  with  our  economic  sys- 
tem as  it  is  and  as  it  may  be  modified, 
not  as  it  might  be  if  we  had  a clean 
sheet  of  paper  to  write  upon;  and  step 
by  step  we  shall  make  it  what  it  should 
be,  in  the  spirit  of  those  who  question 
their  own  wisdom  and  seek  counsel 


’ R.  SPEAKER,  Mr.  President, 

Gentlemen  of  the  Congress — 
tegggg  I am  very  glad,  indeed,  to 
have  this  opportunity  to  ad- 
dress the  two  Houses  directly 
and  to  verify  for  myself  the  impres- 
sion that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  is  a person,  not  a mere  depart- 
ment of  the  Government  hailing  Con- 
gress from  some  isolated  island  of 
jealous  power,  sending  messages,  not 
speaking  naturally  and  with  his  own 
voice — that  he  is  a human  being  try- 
ing to  co-operate  with  other  human 
beings  in  a common  service.  After 
this  pleasant  experience  I shall  feel 
quite  normal  in  all  our  dealings  with 
one  another. 

I have  called  the  Congress  together 
in  extraordinary  session  because  a 
duty  was  laid  upon  the  party  now  In 
power  at  the  recent  elections  which 
it  ought  to  perform  promptly,  in  order 
that  the  burden  carried  by  the  people 
under  existing  law  may  be  lightened 
as  soon  as  possible  and  in  order,  also, 
that  the  business  interests  of  the  coun- 
try may  not  be  kept  too  long  in  sus- 
pense as  to  what  the  fiscal  changes 
are  to  be  to  which  they  will  be  re- 
quired to  adjust  themseles.  t is 
clear  to  the  whole  country  that  the 
tariff  duties  must  be  altered.  They 
must  be  changed  to  meet  the  radical 


and  knowledge,  not  shallow  self-satis- 
faction or  the  excitement  of  excur- 
sions whither  they  cannot  tell.  Jus- 
tice, and  only  justice,  shall  always  be 
our  motto. 

And  yet  it  will  be  no  cool  process 
of  mere  science.  The  Nation  has 
been  deeply  stirred,  stirred  by  a 
solemn  passion,  stirred  by  the  knowl- 
edge of  wrong,  of  ideals  lost,  of  gov- 
ernment too  often  debauched  and 
made  an  instrument  of  evil.  The  feel- 
ings with  which  we  face  this  new  age 
of  right  and  opportunity  sweep 
across  our  hearstrings  like  some  air 
out  of  God’s  own  presence,  where  Jus- 
tice and  mercy  are  reconciled  and  the 
judge  and  the  brother  are  one.  We 
know  our  task  to  be  no  mere  task  of 
politics  but  a task  which  shall  search 
us  through  and  through,  whether  we 
be  able  to  understand  our  time  and 
the  need  of  our  people,  whether  we 
be  indeed  their  spokesmen  and  inter- 
preters, whether  we  have  the  pure  heart 
to  comprehend  and  the  rectified  will 
to  choose  our  high  course  of  action. 

This  is  not  a day  of  triumph;  it  is  a 
day  of  dedication.  Here  muster,  not 
the  forces  of  the  party,  but  the  forces 
of  humanity.  Men's  hearts  wait  upon 
us;  men’s  lives  hang  in  the  balance; 
men’s  hopes  call  upon  us  to  say  what 
we  will  do.  Who  shall  live  up  to  the 
great  trust?  Who  dares  fail  to  try? 
I summon  all  honest  men,  all  patriotic, 
all  forward-looking  men,  to  my  side, 
God  helping  me,  I will  not  fail  them,  if 
they  will  but  counsel  and  sustain  me! 


alteration  in  the  conditions  of  our 
economic  life  which  the  country  has 
witnessed  within  tbe  last  generation. 
While  the  whole  face  and  method  of 
our  industrial  and  commercial  life 
were  being  changed  beyond  recog- 
nition the  tariff  schedules  have  re- 
mained what  they  were  before  the 
change  began,  or  have  moved  in  the 
direction  they  were  given  when  no 
large  circumstance  of  our  industrial 
development  was  what  it  is  today.  Our 
task  is  to  square  them  with  the  actual 
facts.  The  sooner  that  is  done  the 
sooner  we  shall  escape  from  suffering 
from  the  facts  and  the  sooner  our 
men  of  business  will  be  free  to  thrive 
by  the  law  of  nature  (the  nature  of 
free  business)  instead  of  by  the  law 
of  legislation  and  artificial  arrange- 
ment. 

We  have  seen  tariff  legislation  wan- 
der very  far  afield  in  our  day — very 
far,  indeed,  from  the  field  in  which 
our  prosperity  might  have  had  a nor- 
mal growth  and  stimulation.  No  one 
who  looks  the  facts  squarely  in  the 
face  or  knows  anything  that  lies  be- 
neath the  surface  of  action  can  fall 
to  perceive  the  principles  upon  which 
recent  tariff  legislation  has  been 
based.  We  long  ago  passed  beyond 
the  modest  notion  of  “protecting”  the 
industries  of  the  country  and  moved 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

DELIVERED  AT  A JOINT  SESSION  OF  THE  TWO  HOUSES  OF  CONGRESS  AT 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  FIRST  SESSION  OF  THE  63D  CONGRESS 

APRIL  8,  1913 


ON  TARIFF  ALTERATIONS 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


9 


boldly  forward  to  the  idea  that  they  i 
were  entitled  to  the  direct  patronage 
of  the  Government.  For  a long  time 
• — a time  so  long  that  the  men  now  ac-  j 
tive  in  public  policy  hardly  remember  I 
the  conditions  that  preceded  itT — we 
have  sought  in  our  tariff  schedules  to  i 
give  each  group  of  manufacturers  or  i 
producers  what  they  themselves 
thought  that  they  needed  in  order  to  1 
maintain  a practically  exclusive  mar-  i 
ket  as  against  the  rest  of  the  world.  : 
Consciously  or  unconsciously,  we  have 
built  up  a set  of  privileges  and  ex- 
emptions from  competition  behind 
which  it  was  easy  by  any,  even  the 
crudest,  forms  of  combination  to  or- 
ganize monopoly;  until  at  last  nothing 
Is  normal,  nothing  is  obliged  to  stand 
the  tests  of  efficiency  and  economy,  in 
our  world  of  big  business,  but  every- 
thing thrives  by  concerted  arrange- 
ment. Only  new  principles  of  action 
will  6ave  us  from  a final  hard  crys- 
tallization of  monopoly  and  a com- 
plete loss  of  the  influences  that 
quicken  enterprise  and  keep  inde- 
pendent energy  alive. 

It  is  plain  what  those  principles 
must  be.  We  must  abolish  every- 
thing that  bears  even  the  semblance 
of  privilege  or  of  any  kind  of  arti- 
ficial advantage,  and  put  our  business 
men  and  producers  under  the  stimu- 
lation of  a constant  necessity  to  be 
efficient,  economical  and  enterprising, 
masters  of  competitive  supremacy, 
better  workers  and  merchants  than 
any  in  the  world.  Aside  from  the 
duties  laid  upon  articles  which  we  do 
not,  and  probably  cannot,  produce, 
therefore,  and  the  duties  laid  upon 
luxuries  and  merely  for  the  sake  of 
the  revenues  they  yield,  the  object  of 
the  tariff  duties  henceforth  laid  must 
be  effective  competition,  the  whetting 
of  American  wits  by  contest  with  the 
wits  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

It  would  be  unwise  to  move  toward 
this  end  headlong,  with  reckless  haste, 
or  with  strokes  that  cut  at  the  very 
roots  of  what  has  grown  up  among 
us  by  long  process  and  at  our  own 
invitation.  It  does  not  alter  a thing 
to  upset  it  and  break  it  and  deprive 
it  of  a chance  to  change.  It  destroys 
it.  We  must  make  changes  in  our 
fiscal  laws.  In  our  fiscal  system,  whose 


object  is  development,  a more  free 
and  wholesome  development,  not  rev- 
olution or  upset  or  confusion.  We 
must  build  up  trade,  especially  for- 
eign trade.  We  need  the  outlet  and 
the  enlarged  field  of  energy  more  than 
we  ever  did  before.  We  must  build 
up  industry  as  well,  and  must  adopt 
freedom  in  the  place  of  artificial  stim- 
ulation only  so  far  as  it  will  build,  not 
pull  down.  In  dealing  with  the  tariff 
the  method  by  which  this  may  be  done 
will  be  a matter  of  judgment,  exer- 
cised item  by  item.  To  some  not  ac- 
customed to  the  excitements  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  greater  freedom  our 
methods  may  in  some  respects  and  at 
some  points  seem  heroic,  but  remedies 
may  be  heroic  and  yet  be  remedies. 
It  is  our  business  to  make  sure  that 
they  are  genuine  remedies.  Our  ob- 
ject is  clear.  If  our  motive  is  above 
just  challenge  and  only  an  occasional 
error  of  judgment  is  chargeable  against 
us.  we  shall  be  fortunate. 

We  are  called  upon  to  render  the 
country  a great  service  in  more  mat-  ! 
ters  than  one.  Our  responsibility 
should  be  met  and  our  methods  should  I 
be  thorough,  as  thorough  as  moderate 
and  well  considered,  based  upon  the 
facts  as  they  are,  and  not  worked  out 
as  if  we  were  beginners.  We  are  to 
deal  with  the  facts  of  our  own  day, 
with  the  facts  of  no  other,  and  to 
make  laws  which  square  with  those 
facts.  It  is  best,  indeed  it  is  neces- 
sary, to  begin  with  the  tariff.  I will 
urge  nothing  upon  you  now  at  the 
opening  of  your  session  which  can 
obscure  the  first  object  or  divert  our 
energies  from  that  clearly  defined 
duty.  At  a later  time  I may  take  the 
liberty  of  calling  your  attention  to  re- 
forms which  should  press  close  upon 
the  heels  of  the  tariff  changes,  if  not 
accompany  them,  of  which  the  chief 
is  the  reform  of  our  banking  and  cur- 
rency laws;  but  just  now  I refrain. 
For  the  present,  I put  these  matters 
on  one  side  and  think  only  of  this  one 
thing — of  the  changes  in  our  fiscal 
system  ■which  may  best  serve  to  open 
once  more  the  free  channels  of  pros- 
perity to  a great  people  whom  we 
-would  serve  to  the  utmost  and 
throughout  both  rank  and  file. 

I thank  you  for  your  courtesy. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

DELIVERED  AT  A JOINT  SESSION  OF  THE 
TWO  HOUSES  OF  CONGRESS 

JUNE  23,  1913 


ON  THE  BANKING  AND  CURRENCY  SYSTEM 


Speaker,  Mr.  President, 
Gentlemen  of  the  Congress — 
It  is  under  the  compulsion 
of  what  seems  to  me  a clear 
and  Imperative  duty  that  I 
have  a second  time  this  session  sought 
the  privilege  of  addressing  you  in  per- 
son. I know,  of  course,  that  the 
heated  season  of  the  year  is  upon  us, 
that  work  in  these  chambers  and  in 
the  committee  rooms  Is  likely  to  be- 
come a burden  as  the  season  length- 
ens, and  that  every  consideration  of 
personal  convenience  and  personal 
comfort,  perhaps,  in  the  cases  of  some 
of  us,  considerations  of  personal 
health  even,  dictate  an  early  conclu- 
sion of  the  deliberations  of  the  ses- 
sion; but  there  are  occasions  of  public 


duty  when  these  things  which  touch 
us  privately  seem  very  small;  when 
the  work  to  be  done  is  so  pressing 
and  so  fraught  with  big  consequence 
that  we  know  that  we  are  not  at  lib- 
erty to  weigh  against  it  any  point  of 
personal  sacrifice.  We  are  now  in  the 
presence  of  such  an  occasion.  It  is 
absolutely  imperative  that  we  should 
give  the  business  men  of  this  country 
a banking  and  currency  system  by 
means  of  which  they  can  make  use  of 
the  freedom  of  enterprise  and  of  in- 
dividual initiative  which  we  are  about 
to  bestow  upon  them. 

We  are  about  to  set  them  free;  we 
must  not  leave  them  without  the  tools 
of  action  when  they  are  free.  We  are 
about  to  set  them  free  by  removing 
the  trammels  of  the  protective  tariff. 
Ever  since  the  Civil  War  they  have 


waited  for  this  emancipation  and  for 
the  free  opportunities  it  will  bring 
with  it.  It  has  been  reserved  for  us  to 
give  it  to  them.  Some  fell  in  love,  in- 
deed, with  the  slothful  security  of 
their  dependence  upon  the  Govern- 
ment; some  took  advantage  of  the 
shelter  of  the  nursery  to  set  up  a 
mimic  mastery  of  their  own  within  its 
walls.  Now  both  the  tonic  and  the 
discipline  of  liberty  and  maturity  are 
to  ensue.  There  will  follow  a period 
of  expansion  and  new  enterprise, 
freshly  conceived.  It  is  for  us  to  de- 
termine now  whether  it  shall  be  rapid 
and  facile  and  of  easy  accomplish- 
ment. This  it  can  not  be  unless  the 
resourceful  business  men  who  are  to 
deal  with  the  new  circumstances  are 
to  have  at  hand  and  ready  for  use  the 
instrumentalities  and  conveniences  of 
free  enterprise  which  independent 
men  need  when  acting  on  their  own 
initiative. 

It  is  not  enough  to  strike  the 
shackles  from  business.  The  duty  of 
statesmanship  is  not  negative  merely. 
It  is  constructive  also.  We  must  show 
that  we  understand  what  business 
needs  and  that  we  know  how  to  sup- 
ply it.  No  man,  however  casual  and 
superficial  his  observation  of  the  con- 
ditions now  prevailing  in  the  country, 
can  fail  to  see  that  one  of  the  chief 
things  business  needs  no-.v,  and  will 
need  increasingly  as  it  gains  in  scope 
and  vigor  in  the  years  immediately 
ahead  of  us,  is  the  proper  means  by 
which  readily  to  vitalize  its  credit, 
corporate  and  individual,  and  its  origi- 
native brains.  What  will  it  profit  us 
to  be  fret  if  we  are  not  to  have  the 
best  and  most  accessible  instrumen- 
talities of  commerce  and  enterprise? 
What  will  it  profit  us  to  be  quit  of 
one  kind  of  monopoly  if  we  are  to 
remain  in  the  grip  ol  another  and 
more  effective  kind?  l-Iow  are  we  to 
gain  and  keep  the  confidence  of  the 
business  communityy  unless  we  show 
that  we  know  how  both  to  aid  and 
to  protect  it?  What  shall  we  say  if 
we  make  fresh  enterprise  necessary 
and  also  make  it  very  difficult  by  leav- 
ing all  else  except  the  tariff  just  as  we 
found  it?  The  tyrannies  of  business, 
big  and  little,  lie  within  the  field  of 
credit.  We  know  that.  Shall  we  not 
act  upon  the  knowledge?  Do  we  not 
know  how  to  act  upon  it?  If  a man 
can  not  make  his  assets  available  at 
pleasure,  his  assets  of  capacity  and 
character  and  resource,  what  satisfac- 
tion is  it  to  him  to  see  opportunity 
beckoning  to  him  on  every  hand,  when 
others  have  the  keys  of  credit  in  their 
pockets  and  treat  them  as  all  but  their 
own  private  possession?  "It  is  per- 
fectly clear  that  it  is  our  duty  to  sup- 
ply the  new  banking  and  currency 
system  the  country  needs,  and  it  will 
need  it  immediately  more  than  it  has 
ever  needed  it  before. 

The  only  question  is,  when  shall  we 
supply  it — now,  or  later,  after  the  de- 
mands shall  have  become  reproaches 
that  we  were  so  dull  and  so  slow? 
Shall  we  hasten  to  change  the  tariff 
laws  and  then  be  laggards  about  mak- 
ing it  possible  and  easy  for  the  coun- 
try to  take  advantage  of  the  change? 
There  can  be  only  one  answer  to  tb«.» 
question.  We  must  act  now,  at  what- 
ever sacrifice  to  ourselves.  It  is  a duty 
which  the  circumstances  forbid  us  to 
postpone.  I should  be  recreant  to  my 
deepest  convictions  of  public  obliga- 
tion did  I not  press  it  upon  you  with 
solemn  and  urgent  insistence. 

The  principles  upon  which  we 
should  act  are  also  clear.  The  coun- 
try has  sought  and  seen  its  path  in 
this  matter  within  the  last  few  years 
— sees  it  more  clearly  now  than  it  ever 
saw  it  before — much  more  clearly 
than  when  the  last  legislative  propos- 
als on  the  subject  were  made.  We 
must  have  a currency,  not  rigid  as 
now,  but  readily,  elastically  responsive 
to  sound  credit,  the  expanding  and 


10 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


contracting  credits  of  everyday  trans- 
actions, the  normal  ebb  and  flow  o». 
personal  and  corporate  dealings.  Our 
banking  laws  must  mobilize  reserves; 
must  not  permit  the  concentration 
anywhere  in  a few  hands  of  the  mone- 
tary resources  of  the  country  or  their 
use  for  speculative  purposes  in  such 
volume  as  to  hinder  or  impede  or 
Stand  in  the  way  of  other  more  legiti- 
mate, more  fruitful  uses.  And  the 
control  of  the  system  of  banking  and 
of  issue  which  our  new  laws  are  to  set 
up  must  be  public,  not  private,  must 
be  vested  in  the  Government  itself,  so 
that  the  banks  may  be  the  instru- 
ments, not  the  masters,  of  business 
and  of  individual  enterprise  and  initia- 
tive. 

The  committees  of  the  Congress  to 
which  legislation  of  this  character  is 


referred  have  devoted  careful  and  dis- 
passionate study  to  the  means  of  ac- 
complishing these  objects.  They  have 
honored  me  by  consulting  me.  They 
are  ready  to  suggest  action.  I have 
come  to  you,  as  the  head  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  responsible  leader  of 
the  party  in  power,  to  urge  action 
now,  while  there  is  time  to  serve  the 
country  deliberately  and  as  we  should, 
in  a clear  air  of  common  counsel.  I 
appeal  to  you  with  a deep  conviction 
of  duty.  I believe  that  you  share  this 
conviction.  I therefore  appeal  to  you 
with  confidence.  I am  at  your  service 
without  reserve  to  play  my  part  in  any 
way  you  may  call  upon  me  to  play  it 
in  this  great  enterprise  of  exigent  re- 
form which  it  will  dignify  and  dis- 
tinguish us  to  perform  and  discredit 
us  to  neglect. 


were,  a nation  embattled,  the  leaders 
and  the  led,  and  may  know,  if  you 
will,  how  little  except  in  form  its  ac- 
tion differs  in  days  of  peace  from  its 
action  in  days  of  war. 

May  we  break  camp  now  and  be  at 
ease?  Are  the  forces  that  fight  for  the 
nation  dispersed,  disbanded,  gone  to 
their  homes  forgetful  of  the  common 
cause?  Are  our  forces  disorganized, 
without  constituted  leaders  and  the 
might  of  men  consciously  united  be- 
cause we  contend,  not  with  armies, 
but  with  principalities  and  powers  and 
wickedness  in  high  places??  Are  we 
content  to  lie  still?  Does  our  union 
mean  eympathy,  our  peace  content- 
ment, our  vigor  right  action,  our  ma- 
turity self-comprehension  and  a clear 
confidence  in  choosing  what  we  shall 
do?  War  fitted  us  for  action,  and 
action  never  ceases. 

1 have  been  chosen  the  leader  of 
the  nation.  I can  not  justfy  the  choice 
by  any  qualities  of  my  own,  but  so  it 
has  come  about,  and  here  I stand. 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

DELIVERED  AT  GETTYSBURG,  PENNSYLVANIA, 


JULY  4,  1913 


RIENDS  and  fellow  citizens — ■ 
I need  not  tell  you  what  the 
Battle  of  Gettysburg  meant. 
These  gallant  men  in  blue 
and  gray  sit  all  about  us 
Manv  of  them  met  upon  this 


here. 

ground  in  grim  and  deadly  struggle. 
Upon  these  famous  fields  and  hillsides 
their  comrades  died  about  them.  In 
their  presence  it  were  an  impertinence 
to  discourse  upon  how  the  battle  went, 
how  it  ended,  what  it  signified!  But 
fifty  years  have  gone  by  since  then, 
and  I crave  the  privilege  of  speaking 
to  you  for  a few  minutes  of  what  those 
fifty  years  have  meant. 

What  have  they  meant?  They  have 
meant  peace  and  union  and  vigor,  and 
the  maturity  and  might  of  a great 
nation.  How  wholesome  and  healing 
the  peace  has  been!  We  have  found 
one  another  again  as  brothers  and 
comrades  in  arms,  enemies  no  longer, 
generous  friends  rather,  our  battles 
long  past,  the  quarrel  forgotten — ex- 
cept that  we  shall  not  forget  the 
splendid  valor,  the  manly  devotion  of 
the  men  then  arrayed  against  one  an- 
other, now  grasping  hands  and  smil- 
ing into  each  other’s  eyes.  How  com- 
plete the  union  has  become  and  how 
dear  to  all  of  us,  how  unquestioned, 
how  benign  and  majestic,  as  State 
after  State  has  been  added  to  this  our 
great  family  of  free  men!  How  hand- 
some the  vigor,  the  maturity,  the 
might  of  the  great  nation  we  love  with 
undivided  hearts;  how  full  of  large 
and  confident  promise  that  a life  will 
be  wrought  out  that  will  crown  its 
strength  with  gracious  justice  and 
with  a happy  welfare  that  will  touch 
all  alike  with  deep  contentment!  We 
are  debtors  to  those  fifty  crowded 
years;  they  have  made  us  heirs  to  a 
mighty  heritage. 

But  do  we  deem  the  nation  com- 
plete and  finished?  These  venerable 
men  crowding  here  to  this  famous 
field  have  set  us  a great  example  of 
devotion  and  utter  sacrifice.  They 
were  willing  to  die  that  the  people 
might  live.  But  their  task  is  done. 


Their  day  is  turned  into  evening.  They 
look  to  us  to  perfect  what  they  estab- 
lished. Their  work  is  handed  on  to 
us,  to  be  done  in  another  way  but  not 
in  another  spirit.  .Our  day  is  not  over; 
i it  is  upon  us  in  full  tide. 

Have  affairs  paused?  Does  the  na- 
tion stand  still?  Is  what  the  fifty  years 
have  wrought  since  those  days  of  bat- 
tle finished,  rounded  out,  and  com- 
pleted? Here  is  a great  people,  great 
with  every  force  that  has  ever  beaten 
in  the  lifeblood  of  mankind.  And  it  is 
secure.  There  is  no  one  within  its  bor- 
ders, there  is  no  power  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  to  make  it  afraid. 
But  has  it  yet  squared  itself  with  its 
own  great  standards  set  up  at  its  birth, 
when  it  made  that  first  noble,  naive 
appeal  to  the  moral  judgment  of  man- 
kind to  take  notice  that  a government 
had  now  at  last  been  established 
which  was  to  serve  men,  not  masters? 
It  is  secure  in  everything  except  the 
satisfaction  that  its  life  is  right,  ad- 
justed to  the  uttermost  to  the  stand- 
ards of  righeousness  and  humanity. 
The  days  of  sacrifice  and  cleansing 
are  not  closed.  We  have  harder 
things  to  do  than  were  done  in  the 
heroic  days  of  war,  because  harder 
to  see  clearly,  requiring  more  vision, 
more  calm  balance  of  judgment,  a 
more  candid  searching  of  the  very 
springs  of  right. 

Look  around  you  upon  the  field  of 
Gettysburg!  Picture  the  array,  the 
fierce  heats  and  agony  of  battle,  col- 
umn hurled  against  column,  battery 
bellowing  to  battery!  Valor?  Yes! 
Greater  no  man  shall  see  in  war;  and 
self-sacrifice,  and  loss  to  the  utter- 
most: the  high  recklessness  of  exajted 
devotion  which  does  not  count  the 
cost.  We  are  made  by  these  tragic, 
epic  things  to  know  what  it  costs  to 
make  a nation — the  blood  and  sacri- 
fice of  multitudes  of  unknown  men 
lifted  to  a great  stature  in  the  view 
of  all  generations  by  knowing  no  limit 
to  their  manly  willingness  to  serve.  In 
armies  thus  marshaled  from  the 
ranks  of  free  men  you  will  see,  as  it 


Whom  do  I command?  The  ghostly 
hosts  who  fought  upon  these  battle- 
fields long  ago  and  are  gone?  These 
gallant  gentlemen  stricken  in  years 
whose  fighting  days  are  over,  their 
glory  won?  What  are  the  orders  for 
them,  and  who  rallies  them?  I have 
in  my  mind  another  host,  whonf'these 
set  free  of  civil  strife  in  order  that  j 
they  might  work  out  in  days  of  peace 
and  settled  order  the  life  of  a great 
nation.  That  host  is  the  people  them- 
selves, the  great  and  the  small,  with- 
out class  or  difference  of  kind  or  race 
or  origin;  and  undivided  in  interest, 
if  we  have  but  the  vision  to  guide  and 
direct  them  and  order  their  lives 
aright  in  what  we  do.  Our  constitu- 
tions are  their  articles  of  enlistment. 
The  orders  of  the  day  are  the  laws 
upon  our  statute  books.  What  we 
strive  for  is  their  freedom,  their  right 
to  lift  themselves  from  day  to  day  and 
behold  the  things  they  have  hoped  for, 
and  so  make  way  for  still  better  days 
for  those  whom  they  love  who  are  to 
come  after  them.  The  recruits  are  the 
little  children  crowding  in.  The  quar- 
termaster’s stores  are  in  the  mines  and 
forests  and  fields,  in  the  shops  and 
factories.  Every  day  something  must 
I be  done  to  push  the  campaign  for- 
ward; and  it  must  be  done  by  plan 
and  with  an  eye  to  some  great  destiny. 

How  shall  we  hold  such  thoughts  in 
our  hearts  and  not  be  moved?  I would 
not  have  you  live  even  today  wholly  in 
the  past,  but  would  wish  to  stand  with 
you  in  the  light  that  streams  upon  us 
now  out  of  that  great  day  gone  by. 
Here  is  the  nation  God  has  builded  by 
our  hands.  What  shall  we  do  with  it? 
Who  stands  ready  to  act  again  and 
always  in  the  spirit  of  this  day  of  re- 
union and  hope  and  patriotic  fervor? 
The  day  of  our  country’s  life  has  but 
broadened  into  morning.  Do  not  put 
uniforms  by.  Put  the  harness  of  the 
present  on.  Lift  your  eyes  to  the  great 
tracts  of  life  yet  to  be  conquered  in  the 
interest  of  righteous  peace,  of  that 
prosperity  which  lies  in  a people's 
hearts  and  outlasts  all  wars  and  er- 
i rors  of  men.  Come,  let  us  be  com- 
rades and  soldiers  yet  to  serve  our 
fellow  men  in  quiet  counsel,  where 
the  blare  of  trumpets  is  neither  heard 
nor  heeded  and  where  the  things  are 
done  which  make  blessed  the  nations 
of  the  world  in  peace  and  righteous- 
ness and  love. 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


11 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

DELIVERED  AT  A JOINT  SESSION  OP  THE 
TWO  HOUSES  OP  CONGRESS 

AUGUST  27,  1913 


MEXICAN  AFFAIRS 


pacification  by  the  authorities  at  the 
capital  is  evidently  impossible  by  any 
other  means  than  force.  Difficulties 
more  and  more  entangle  those  who 
claim  to  constitute  the  legitimate  gov- 
ernment of  the  republic.  They  have 
not  made  good  their  claim  in  fact. 
Their  successes  in  the  field  have  proved 
only  temporary.  War  and  disorder, 
devastation  and  confusion,  seem  to 
threaten  to  become  the  settled  fortune 


of  the  distracted  country.  As  friends 
we  could  wait  no  longer  for  a solution  w&s  possible  and  proper  to  assist  the 
which  every  week  seemed  further  administration  chosen  and  set  up  in 


G“'  1ENTLEMEN  of  the  Congress  anxiety,  for  the  conditions  there  to  im- 
— It  is  clearly  mv  duty  to  P™ve.  and  the>'  have  not  improved. 
...  „ They  have  grown  worse,  rather.  The 

ay  ^e^ore  y°u-  very  fully  ; territory  in  some  sort  controlled  by 
and  without  reservation,  the;  the  provisional  authorities  at  Mexico 
facts  concerning  our  present  I City  has  grown  smaller,  not  larger, 
relations  with  the  republic  of  Mexico.  The  prosfiect  of  the  pacification  of  the 

„ ■ country,  even  by  arms,  has  seemed  to 
The  deplorable  posture  of  affairs  n 1 grow  more  and  more  remote;  and  its 
Mexico  I need  not  describe,  but  I deem 
it  my  duty  to  speak  very  frankly  of 
what  this  Government  has  done  and 
should  seek  to  do  in  fulfillment  of  its 
obligation  to  Mexico  herself,  as  a 
friend  and  neighbor,  and  to  American 
citizens  whose  lives  and  vital  interests 
are  daily  affected  by  the  distressing 
conditions  which  now  obtain  beyond 
our  southern  border. 

Those  conditions  touch  us  very 
nearly.  Not  merely  because  they  lie  at 
our  very  doors.  That,  of  course,  makes 
us  more  vividly  and  more  constantly 
conscious  of  them,  and  every  instinct 
of  neighborly  interest  and  sympathy  is 
aroused  and  quickened  by  them;  but 
that  is  only  one  element  in  the  deter- 
mination of  our  duty.  We  are  glad 
to  call  ourselves  the  friends  of  Mex- 
ico, and  we  shall,  I hope,  have  many 
an  occasion,  in  happier  times,  as  well 
as  in  these  days  of  trouble  and  confu- 
sion, to  show  that  our  friendship  is 
genuine  and  disinterested,  capable  of 
sacrifice  and  every  generous  manifes- 
tation. The  peace,  prosperity  and 
contentment  of  Mexico  mean  more, 
much  more,  to  us  than  merely  an  en- 
larged field  for  our  commerce  and  en- 
terprise. They  mean  an  enlargement 
of  the  field  of  self-government  and  the 
realization  of  the  hopes  and  rights  of 
a nation  with  ^hose  best  aspirations, 
so  long  suppressed  and  disappointed, 
we  deeply  sympathize.  We  shall  yet 
prove  to  the’  Mexican  people  that  we 
know  how  to  serve  them  without  first 
thinking  how  we  shall  serve  ourselves. 

But  we  are  not  the  only  friends  of 
Mexico.  The  whole  world  desires  her 
peace  and  progress;  and  the  whole 
world  is  interested  as  never  before.  _ 

Mexico  lies  at  last  where  all  the  world  are  expected  by  the  powers  of  the 
looks  on.  Central  America  is  about  to  v/orld  to  act  as  Mexico’s  nearest  friend, 
be  touched  by  the  great  routes  of  the  1 “We  wish  to  act  in  these  circum- 
world’s  trade  and  intercourse  running  stances  in  the  spirit  of  the  most  ear- 
free  from  ocean  to  ocean  at  the  Isth-  '•  nest  and  disinterested  friendship.  It 
mus.  The  future  has  much  in  store  js  0ur  purpose  in  whatever  we  do  or 
for  Mexico,  as  for  all  the  States  of  propose  in  this  perplexing  and 
Central  America;  but  the  best  gifts  distressing  situation  not  only 
can  come  to  her  only  if  she  be  ready  to  pay  the  most  scrupulous 
and  free  to  receive  them  and  to  enjoy  regard  to  the  sovereignty  and  inde- 
them  honorably.  America  in  particu-  pendence  of  Mexico— that  we  take  as  a 

lar America  north  and  south  and  up-  matter  of  course  to  which  we  are 

on  both  continents — waits  upon  the  bound  by  every  obligation  of  right  and 
development  of  Mexico;  and  that  de-  honor — but  also  to  give  every  possible 
velopment  can  be  sound  and  lasting  evidence  that  we  act  in  the  interest  of 
only  if  it  be  the  product  of  a genuine  Mexico  alone,  and  not  in  the  interest 
freedom,  a just  and  ordered  govern-  Qf  any  person  or  body  of  persons  who 
ment  founded  upon  law.  Only  so  can  may  have  personal  or  property  claims 
it  be  peaceful  or  fruitful  of  the  bene-  jn  Mexico  in  which  they  may  feel  that 
fits  of  peace.  Mexico  has  a great  and  they  have  the  right  to  press.  We  are 
enviable  future  before  her,  if  only  she  seeking  to  counsel  Mexico  for  her  own 
choose  to  attain  the  paths  of  honest  good  and  in  the  interest  of  her  own 

I peace,  and  not  for  any  other  purpose 


whole  people  are  involved.  It  is  act- 
ing as  its  friendship  for  Mexico,  not  as 
any  selfish  interest,  dictates. 

"The  present  situation  in  Mexico  is 
incompatible  with  the  fulfillment  of 
international  obligations  on  the  part  of 
Mexico,  with  the  civilized  development 
of  Mexico  herself,  and  with  the  main- 
tenance of  tolerable  political  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  in  Central  America. 
It  is  upon  no  common  occasion, 
therefore,  that  the  United  States  offers 
her  counsel  and  assistance.  All  Amer- 
ica cries  out  for  for  a settlement. 

"A  satisfactory  settlement  seems  to 
us  to  be  conditioned  on — - 

‘‘Cal  An  immediate  cessation  of  fight- 
ing throughout  Mexico,  a definite  ar- 
mistice solemnly  entered  into  and 
scrupulously  observed; 

“(b)  Security  given  for  an  early  and 
free  election  in  which  all  will  agree  to 
take  part; 

“(c)  The  consent  of  General  Huerta 
to  bind  himself  not  to  be  a candidate 
for  election  as  President  of  the  repub- 
lic at  this  election;  and 

“(d)  The  agreement  of  all  parties  to 
abide  by  the  results  of  the  election  and 
co-operate  in  the  most  loyal  way  in  or- 
ganizing and  supporting  the  new  ad- 
ministration. 

"The  government  of  the  United  States 
will  be  glad  to  play  any  part  in  this 
settlement  or  in  its  carrying  out 
which  it  can  play  honorably  and  con- 
sistently with  international  right.  It 
pledges  itself  to  recognize  and  in  every 


away.  It  was  our  duty  as  least  to  vol- 
unteer our  good  offices — to  offer  to  as- 
sist, if  we  might,  in  effecting  some  ar- 
rangement which  would  bring  relief 
and  peace  and  set  up  a universally  ac- 
knowledged political  authority  there. 

Accordingly,  I took  the  liberty  of 
sending  the  Hon.  John  Lind,  formerly 
Governor  of  Minnesota,  as  my  personal 
spokesman  and  representative,  to  the 
City  of  Mexico,  with  the  following  in- 
structions: 

“Press  very  earnestly  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  those  who  are  now  exercising 
authority  or  wielding  influence  in 
Mexico  the  following  considerations 
and  advice; 

“The  government  of  the  United  States 
does  not  feel  at  liberty  any  longer  to 
stand  inactively  by  while  it  becomes 
daily  more  and  more  evident  that  no 
real  progress  is  being  made  toward 
the  establishment  of  a government  at 
the  City  of  Mexico  which  the  country 
will  obey  and  respect. 

"The  government  of  the  United  States 
does  not  stand  in  the  same  case  with 
the  other  great  governments  of  the 
world  in  respect  of  what  is  happening 
or  what  is  likely  to  happen  in  Mexico. 
We  offer  our  good  offices,  not  only  be- 
cause of  our  genuine  desire  to  play  the 
part  of  a friend,  but  also  because  we 


constitutional  government. 

The  present  circumstances  of  the  re-  j whatever.  The  government  of  the 
public,  I deeply  regret  to  say,  do  not  | United  States  would  deem  itself  dls- 
Beem  to  promise  even  the  foundations  ; credited  if  it  had  any  selfish  or  ulterior 
of  such  a peace.  We  have  waited  purpose  in  transactions  where  the  do?  Clearly,  everything  that  wo  do 

many  months,  months  full  of  peril  and  peace,  happiness  and  prosperity  of  a must  be  rooted  In  patience  and  don* 


Mexico  in  the  way  and  on  the  condi- 
tions suggested. 

"Taking  all  the  existing  conditions 
into  consideration,  the  government  of 
the  United  States  can  conceive  of  no 
reasons  sufficient  to  justify  those  who 
are  now  attempting  to  shape  the  pol- 
icy or  exercise  the  authority  of  Mexico 
in  declining  the  offices  of  friendship 
thus  offered.  Can  Mexico  give  the  civ- 
ilized world  a satisfactory  reason  for 
rejecting  our  good  offices?  If  Mexico 
can  suggest  any  better  way  in  which 
to  show  our  friendship,  serve  the  peo- 
ple of  Mexico  and  meet  our  interna- 
tional obligations,  we  are  more  than 
willing  to  consider  the  suggestion.” 

Mr.  Lind  executed  his  delicate  and 
difficult  mission  with  singular  tact, 
firmness  and  good  Judgment,  and  made 
clear  to  the  authorities  at  the  City  of 
Mexico  not  only  the  purpose  of  his 
visit,  but  also  the  spirit  in  which  It 
had  been  undertaken.  But  the  popos- 
als  he  submitted  were  rejected,  in  a 
note  the  full  text  of  which  I take  the 
liberty  of  laying  before  you. 

I am  led  to  believe  that  they  were 
rejected  partly  because  the  authorities 
at  Mexico  City  had  been  grossly  mis- 
informed and  misled  upon  two  points. 
They  did  not  realize  the  spirit  of  the 
American  people  in  this  matter,  their 
earnest  friendliness  and  yet  sober  de- 
termination that  some  Just  solution  be 
found  for  the  Mexican  difficulties;  and 
they  did  not  believe  that  the  present 
administration  spoke,  through  Mr, 
Lind,  for  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  The  effect  of  this  unfortunate 
misunderstanding  on  their  part  is  to 
leave  them  singularly  isolated  and 
without  friends  who  can  effectually 
aid  them.  So  long  as  the  misunder- 
standing continues  we  can  ohfy  await 
the  time  of  their  awakening  to  a real- 
ization of  the  aotual  facts.  We  can- 
not thrust  our  good  offices  upon  them. 
The  situation  must  be  given,  a little 
more  time  to  work  itself  out  in  the 
new  circumstances;  and  I believe  that 
only  a little  while  will  be  necessary. 
For  the  circumstances  are  new.  The 
rejection  of  our  friendship  makes 
them  new  and  will  inevitably  bring  its 
own  alterations  in  the  whole  aspect  of 
affairs.  The  actual  situation  of  the 
authorities  at  Mexico  City  will  pres- 
ently be  revealed. 

Meanwhile,  what  is  it  our  duty  to 


r 12 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


with  calm  and  disinterested  deliber- 
ation. Impatience  on  our  part  would 
be  childish,  and  would  be  fraught  with 
every  risk  of  wrong  and  folly.  We  can 
afford  to  exercise  the  self-restraint  of 
a really  great  nation  which  realizes 
its  own  strength  and  scorns  to  misuse 
it.  It  was  our  duty  to  offer  our  active 
assistance.  It  is  now  our  duty  to  show 
what  true  neutrality  will  do  to  enable 
the  people  of  Mexico  to  set  their  af- 
fairs in  order  again  and  wait  for  a fur- 
ther opportunity  to  offer  our  friendly 
counsels.  The  door  is  not  closed 
against  the  resumption,  either  upon 
the  initiative  of  Mexico  or  upon  our 
own,  of  the  effort  to  bring  order  out 
of  the  confusion  by  friendly  co-opera- 
tive action,  should  fortunate  occasion 
offer. 

While  we  wait  the  contest  of  the 
rival  forces  will  undoubtedly  for  a lit- 
tle while  be  sharper  than  ever,  just 
because  it  will  be  plain  that  an  end 
must  be  made  of  the  existing  situation, 
and  that  very  promptly;  and  with  the 
increased  activity  of  the  contending 
factions  will  come,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
increased  danger  to  the  non-combat- 
ants in  Mexico  as  well  as  to  those  ac- 
tually in  the  field  of  battle.  The  po- 
sition of  outsiders  is  always  particu- 
larly trying  and  full  of  hazard  where 
there  is  civil  strife  and  a whole  coun- 
try is  upset.  We  should  earnestly 
urge  all  Americans  to  leave  Mexico  at 
once,  and  should  assist  them  to  get 
away  in  every  way  possible — not  be- 
cause we  would  mean  to  slacken  in  the 
least  our  efforts  to  safeguard  their 
lives  and  their  interests,  but  because 
it  is  imperative  that  they  should  take 
no  unnecessary  risks  when  it  is  physi- 
cally impossible  for  them  to  leave  the 
country.  We  should  let  everyone  who 
assumes  to  exercise  authority  in  any 
part  of  Mexico  know  in  the  most  un- 
equivocal way  that  we  shall  vigilantly 
watch  the  fortunes  of  those  Americans 
who  cannot  get  away,  and  shall  hold 
those  responsible  for  their  sufferings 
and  losses  to  a definite  reckoning. 
That  can  be  and  will  be  made  plain 
beyond  the  possibility  of  a misunder- 
standing. 

For  the  rest,  I deem  it  my  duty  to 
exercise  the  authority  conferred  upon 
me  by  the  law  of  March  14,  1912,  to 
see  to  it  that  neither  side  to  the  strug- 
gle now  going  on  in  Mexico  receive  any 
assistance  from  this  side  of  the  border. 
I shall  follow  the  best  practice  of  na- 
tions in  the  matter  of  neutrality  by 
forbidding  the  exportation  of  arms  or 
munitions  of  war  of  any  kind  from  the 
United  States  to  any  part  of  the  Re- 
public of  Mexico — a policy  suggested 
by  several  interesting  precedents  and 
certainly  dictated  by  many  manifest 
considerations  of  practical  expediency. 
We  cannot  in  the  circumstances  be 
the  partisans  of  either  party  to  the 
contest  that  now  distracts  Mexico,  or 
constitute  ourselves  the  virtual  um- 
pire between  them. 

I am  happy  to  say  that  several  of  the 
great  governments  of  the  world  have 
given  this  Government  their  generous 
moral  support  in  urging  upon  the  pro- 
visional authorities  at  the  City  of  Mex- 
ico the  acceptance  of  our  proffered 
good  offices  in  the  spirit  in  which  they 
were  made.  We  have  not  acted  in  this 
matter  und6r  the  ordinary  principles  of 
international  obligation.  All  the  world 
expects  us  in  such  circumstances  to  act 
as  Mexico’s  nearest  friend  and  Intimate 
adviser.  This  is  our  immemorial  rela- 
tion toward  her.  There  is  nowhere  any 
serious  question  that  we  have  the 
moral  right  in  the  case  or  that  we  are 
acting  in  the  interest  of  a fair  settle- 
ment and  of  good  government,  not  for 
the  promotion  of  some  selfish  interest 
of  our  own.  If  further  motive  were 
necessary  than  our  own  good  will  to- 
ward a sister  Republic  and  our  own 
deep  concern  to  see  peace  and  order 
prevail  in  Central  America,  this  con- 
sent of  mankind  to  what  we  are  at- 


tempting, this  attitude  of  the  great  na- 
tions of  the  world  toward  what  we 
may  attempt  in  dealing  with  this  dis- 
tressed people  at  our  doors,  should 
make  us  feel  the  more  solemnly  bound 
to  go  to  the  utmost  length  of  patience 
and  forbearance  in  this  painful  and 
anxious  business.  The  steady  pressure 


of  moral  force  will  before  many  days 
break  the  barriers  of  pride  and  preju- 
dice down,  and  we  shall  triumph  as 
Mexico’s  friends  sooner  than  we  could 
triumph  as  her  enemies — and  how 
much  more  handsomely,  with  how 
much  higher  and  finer  satisfactions  of 
conscience  and  of  honor! 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

AT  PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  OCTOBER  25,  1913 


ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE  REDEDICATION  OF  CONGRESS  HALL 


YOUR  Honor,  Mr.  Chairman, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen — No 
American  could  stand  in  this 
place  today  and  tm-n-k  M:  rhe 
circumstances  which  we  are 
come  together  to  celebrate  without 
being  most  profoundly  stirred.  There 
has  come  over  me  since  I sat  down 
here  a sense  of  deep  solemnity,  be- 
cause it  has  seemed  to  me  that  I saw 
ghosts  crowding— a great  assemblage 
of  spirits,  no  longer  visible,  but  whose 
influence  we  still  feel  as  we  feel  the 
molding  power  of  history  itself.  The 
men  who  sat  in  this  hall,  to  whom  we 
now  look  back  with  a touch  of  deep 
sentiment,  were  men  of  flesh  and 
blood,  face  to  face  with  extremely 
difficult  problems.  The  population  of 
the  United  States  then  was  hardly 
three  times  the  present  population  of 
the  City  of  Philadelphia,  and  yet  that 
was  a Nation  as  this  is  a Nation,  and 
the  men  who  spoke  for  it  were  setting 
their  hands  to  a work  which  was  to 
last,  not  only  that  their  people  might 
be  happy,  but  that  an  example  might 
be  lifted  up  for  the  instruction  of  the 
rest  of  the  world. 

I like  to  road  the  quaint  old  ac- 
counts, such  as  Mr.  Day  has  read  to 
us  this  afternoon.  Strangers  came 
then  to  America  to  see  what  the  young 
people  that  had  sprung  up  here  were 
like,  and  they  found  men  in  counsel 
who  knew  how  to  construct  govern- 
ments. They  found  men  deliberating 
here  who  had  none  of  the  appearance 
of  novices,  none  of  the  hesitation  of 
men  who  did  not  know  whether  the 
work  they  were  doing  was  going  to 
last  or  not;  men  who  addressed  them- 
selves to  a problem  of  construction  as 
familiarly  as  we  attempt  to  carry  out 
the  traditions  of  a Government  estab- 
lished these  137  years. 

I feel  today  the  compulsion  of  these 
men,  the  compulsion  of  examples 
which  were  set  up  in  this  place.  And 
of  what  do  tlieir  examples  remind  us? 
They  remind  us  not  merely  of  public 
service,  but  of  public  service  shot 
through  with  principle  and  honor. 
They  were  not  histrionic  men.  They 
did  not  say: 

“Look  upon  us  as  upon  those  who 
shall  hereafter  be  illustrious.’’ 

They  said; 

“Look  upon  us  who  are  doing  the 
first  free  work  of  constitutional  liberty 
in  the  world,  and  who  must  do  it  in 
soberness  and  truth,  or  it  will  not 
last.” 

Politics,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is 
made  up  in  just  about  equal  parts  of 
comprehension  and  sympathy.  No 
man  ought  to  go  into  politics  who  does 


I not  comprehend  the  task  that  he  is 
' going  to  attack.  He  may  comprehend 
it  so  completely  that  it  daunts  him; 
that  he  doubts  whether  his  own  spirit 
is  stout  enough  and  his  own  mind  able 
enough  to  attempt  its  great  under* 
takings;  but  unless  he  comprehend  it, 
he  ought  not  to  enter  it.  After  he  has 
comprehended  it,  there  should  come 
into  his  mind  those  profound  impulses 
of  sympathy  which  connect  him  with 
the  rest  of  mankind,  for  politics  is  a 
business  of  interpretation,  and  no  men 
are  fit  for  it  who  do  not  see  and  seek 
more  than  their  own  advantage  and 
interest. 

We  have  stumbled  upon  many  un- 
happy circumstances  in  the  hundred 
years  that  have  gone  by  since  the 
event  that  we  are  celebrating.  Almost 
all  of  them  have  come  from  self-cen- 
tered men,  men  who  saw  in  their  own 
interest  the  interest  of  the  country, 
and  who  did  not  have  vision  enough 
to  read  it  in  wider  terms,  in  the  uni- 
versal terms  of  equity  and  justice  and 
the  rights  of  mankind.  I hear  a great 
many  people  at  Fourth  of  July  cele- 
brations laud  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence who  in  between  Julys  shiver 
at  the  plain  language  of  our  bill  of 
rights.  The  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence was,  indeed,  the  first  audible 
breath  of  liberty,  but  the  substance  of 
liberty  is  written  in  such  documents 
as  the  declaration  of  rights  attached, 
for  example,  to  the  first  Constitution 
of  Virginia,  which  was  a model  for  the 
similar  documents  read  elsewhere  into 
our  great  fundamental  charters.  That 
document  speaks  in  very  plain  terms. 
The  men  of  that  generation  did  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  every  people  has 
a right  to  choose  its  own  forms  of  gov- 
ernment— not  once,  but  as  often  as  it 
pleases — and  to  accommodate  those 
forms  of  government  to  its  existing 
interests  and  circumstances.  Not  only 
to  establish,  but  to  alter,  is  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  self-government. 

We  are  just  as  much  under  com- 
pulsion to  study  the  particular  circum- 
stances of  our  own  day  as  the  gentle- 
men were  who  sat  in  this  hall  and  set 
us  precedents,  not  of  what  to  do,  but 
of  how  to  do  it.  Liberty  inheres  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  day.  Human 
happiness  consists  of  the  life  which 
human  beings  are  leading  at  the  time 
that  they  live.  I can  feed  my  mem- 
ory as  happily  upon  the  circumstances 
of  the  Revolutionary  and  Constitu- 
tional period  as  you  can,  but  I cannot 
feed  all  my  purposes  with  them  in 
Washington  now.  Every  day  prob- 
lems arise  which  wear  some  new 
phase  and  aspect,  and  I must  fall 
back,  if  I would  serve  my  conscience, 
upon  those  things  which  are  funda- 
mental rather  than  upon  those  things 
which  are  superficial,  and  ask  myself 
this  question:  How  are  you  going  to 

assist  in  some  small  part  to  give  the 
American  people,  and,  by  example,  the 
peoples  of  the  world,  more  liberty, 
more  happiness,  more  substantial  pros- 


Eagle  Library* — SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


13 


perity;  and  how  are  you  going  to  make 
that  prosperity  a common  heritage  in- 
stead of  a selfish  possession?  I came 
here  today  partly  In  order  to  feed  my 
own  spirit.  I did  not  come  in  compli- 
ment. When  I was  asked  to  come,  I 
knew  immediately  upon  the  utterance 
of  the  invitation  that  I had  to  come; 
that  to  be  absent  would  be  as  if  I re- 
fused to  drink  once  more  at  the  origi- 
nal fountains  of  inspiration  for  our 
own  Government. 

The  men  of  the  day  which  we  now 
celebrate  had  a very  great  advantage 
over  us,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  this 
one  particular.  Life  was  simple  in 
America  then.  All  men  shared  the 
same  circumstances  in  almost  equal 
degree.  We  think  of  Washington,  for 
example,  as  an  aristocrat,  as  a man  sep- 
arated by  training,  separated  by  family 
and  neighborhood  tradition,  from  the 
ordinary  people  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  country.  Have  you  forgotten 
the  personal  history  of  George  Wash- 
ington? Do  you  not  know  that  he 
struggled  as  poor  boys  now  struggle 
for  a meager  and  imperfect  educa- 
tion; that  he  worked  at  his  surveyor’s 
tasks  in  the  lonely  forests;  that  he 
knew  all  the  roughness,  all  the  hard- 
ships, all  the  adventure,  all  the  va- 
riety of  the  common  life  of  that  day; 
that  if  he  stood  a little  stffiy  in  this 
place,  if  he  looked  a little  aloof,  it 
was  because  life  had  dealt  hardly  with 
him?  All  his  sinews  had  been  stiffened 
by  the  rough  work  of  making  Amer- 
ica. He  was  a man  of  the  people, 
whose  touch  had  been  with  them  since 
the  day  he  saw  the  light  first  in  the 
old  Dominion  of  Virginia.  And  the 
men  who  came  after  him,  men,  some 
of  whom  had  drunk  deep  at  the  sources 
of  philosophy  and  of  study,  were, 
nevertheless,  also  men  who  on  this 
side  of  the  water  knew  no  complicated 
life  but  the  simple  life  of  primitive 
neighborhoods.  Our  task  is  very  much 
more  difficult.  That  sympathy  which 
alone  interprets  public  duty  is  more 
difficult  for  a public  man  to  acquire 
now  than  it  was  then,  because  we  live 
in  the  midst  of  circumstances  and 
conditions  infinitely  complex. 

No  man  can  boast  that  he  under- 
stands America.  No  man  can  boast 
that  he  has  lived  the  life  of  America, 
as  almost  every  man  who  sat  in  this 
hall  in  those  days  could  boast.  No 
man  can  pretend  that  except  by  com- 
mon counsel  he  can  gather  into  his 
consciousness  what  the  varied  life  of 
this  people  is.  The  duty  that  we  have 
to  keep  open  eyes  and  open  hearts 
and  accessible  understandings  is  a 
very  much  more  difficult  duty  to  per- 
form than  it  was  in  their  day.  Vet 
how  much  more  important  that  it 
should  be  performed,  for  fear  we 
make  infinite  and  irreparable  blunders. 
The  City  of  Washington  is  in  some 
respects  self-contained,  and  it  is  easy 
there  to  forget  what  the  rest  of  the 
United  States  is  thinking  about.  I 
count  it  a fortunate  circumstance  that 
almost  all  the  windows  of  the  White 
House  and  its  offices  open  upon  un- 
occupied spaces  that  stretch  to  the 
banks  of  the  Potomac  and  then  out 
Into  Virginia  and  on  to  the  heavens 
themselves,  and  that  as  I sit  there  I 
can  constantly  forget  Washington  and 
remember  the  United  States.  Not 
that  I would  Intimate  that  all  of  the 
United  States  lies  south  of  Washing- 
ton, but  there  is  a serious  thing  back 
of  my  thought.  If  you  think  too  much 
about  being  re-elected,  it  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  be  worth  re-electing.  You  are 
so  apt  to  forget  that  the  compara- 
tively small  number  of  persons,  nu- 
merous as  they  seem  to  be  when  they 
swarm,  who  come  to  Washington  to 
ask  for  things,  do  not  constitute  an 
important  proportion  of  the  popula- 
tion of  the  country,  that  it  is  con- 
stantly necessary  to  come  away  from 
Washington  and  renew  one’s  contact 
with  the  people  who  do  not  swarm 
there,  who  do  not  ask  for  anything, 


but  who  do  trust  you  without  their 
personal  counsel  to  do  your  duty.  Un- 
less a man  gets  these  contacts  he 
grows  weaker  and  weaker.  He  needs 
them  as  Hercules  needed  the  touch 
of  mother  earth.  If  you  lift  him  up 
too  high  or  he  lifts  himself  too  high,  he 
loses  the  contact  and  therefore  loses 
the  inspiration. 

I love  to  think  of  those  plain  men, 
however  far  from  plain  their  dress 
sometimes  was,  who  assembled  in  this 
hall.  One  is  startled  to  think  of  the 
variety  of  costume  and  color  which 
would  now  occur  if  we  were  let  loose 
upon  the  fashions  of  that  age.  Men’s 
lack  of  taste  is  largely  concealed  now 
by  the  limitations  of  fashion.  Yet 
these  men,  who  sometimes  dressed  like 
the  peacock,  were,  nevertheless,  of  the 
ordinary  flight  of  their  time.  They 
were  birds  of  a featner;  they  were 
birds  come  from  a very  simple  breed- 
ing; they  were  much  in  the  open 
heaven.  They  were  beginning,  when 
there  was  so  little  to  distract  their 
attention,  to  show  that  they  could  live 
upon  fundamental  principles  of  gov- 
ernment. We  talk  those  principles, 
but  we  have  not  time  to  absorb  them,  i 


We  have  not  time  to  let  them  into 
our  blood,  and  thence  have  them 
translated  into  the  plain  mandates  of 
action. 

The  very  smallness  of  this  room,  the 
very  simplicity  of  it  all,  all  the  sug- 
gestions which  come  from  its  restora- 
tion, are  reassuring  things — things 
which  it  becomes  a man  to  realize. 
Therefore  my  theme  here  today,  my 
only  thought,  is  a very  simple  one. 
Do  not  let  us  go  Dack  to  the  annals 
of  those  sessions  of  Congress  to  find 
out  what  to  do,  because  we  live  in 
another  age  and  the  circumstances  are 
absolutely  different;  but  let  us  be  men 
of  that  kind;  let  us  feel  at  every  turn 
the  compulsions  of  principle  and  of 
honor  which  they  felt;  let  us  free  our 
vision  from  temporary  circumstances 
and  look  aDroad  at  the  horizon  and 
take  into  our  lungs  the  great  air  of 
freedom  which  has  blown  through  this 
country  and  stolen  across  the  seas  and 
blessed  people  everywhere;  and, 
looking  east  and  west  and  north  and 
south,  let  us  remind  ourselves  tha\: 
we  are  the  custodians,  in  some  degree, 
of  the  principles  which  have  made 
i men  free  and  governments  just. 


“ ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

DELIVERED  AT  SWATHMORE  COLLEGE 

SWARTHMORE,  OCTOBER  25,  1913 


OUR  Excellency,  Mr.  Clothier 
Mr.  President — That  greet 
5ng  sounds  very  familiar, 
and  I am  reminded  of  an 
anecdote  told  of  that  good 
artist,  but  better  wit,  Oliver  Herford. 
On  one  occasion,  being  seated  at  his 
club  at  lunch,  a man  whose  manners 
he  did  not  very  much  relish  came  up 
to  him  and  slapped  him  on  the  back 
and  said,  “Hello,  Ollie,  old  boy,  how 
are  you?”  He  looked  up  at  the  man 
somewhat  coldly  and  said,  “I  don’t 
know  your  name  and  I don’t  know 
your  face,  but  your  manners  are  verj 
familiar/’  The  manners  exemplified 
in  that  cheer  are  delightfully  familiar. 

I find  myself  unaffectedly  embar- 
rassed today.  I want  to  say,  in  sincere 
compliment,  that  I do  not  like  to  at- 
tempt an  extemporaneous  address 
following  so  finished  an  orator  as  the 
one  who  has  just  taken  his  seat. 
Moreover,  I am  somewhat  confused 
as  to  my  identity.  I am  told  by  psy- 
chologists that  I would  not  know  who 
I am  today  if  I did  not  remember  who 
I was  yesterday;  but  when  I recollect 
that  yesterday  I was  a college  presi- 1 
dent,  that  does  not  assist  me  in  es- 
tablishing my  identity  today.  On  the 
contrary,  this  very  presence,  the  char- 
acter of  this  audience,  this  place  with 
its  academic  memories,  all  combine  to 
remind  me  that  the  greater  part  of 
my  active  life  has  been  spent  in  com- 
panies like  this,  and  it  will  be  difficult 
for  me  in  what  follows  of  this  address 
to  keep  out  of  the  old  ruts  of  admoni- 
tion which  I have  been  accustomed 
to  follow  in  the  role  of  college  presi- 
dent. 

No  one  can  stand  in  the  presence  of 
a gathering  like  this,  on  a day  sug- 
gesting the  memories  which  this  day 
suggests,  without  asking  himself  what 
a college  is  for.  There  have  been  1 


times  when  I have  suspected  that  cer- 
tain undergraduates  did  not  know.  I 
remember  that  in  days  of  discourage- 
ment as  a teacher  I gratefully  recalled 
the  sympathy  of  a friend  of  mine  in 
the  Yale  faculty,  who  said  that  after 
twenty  years  of  teaching  he  had  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  human  mind 
had  infinite  resources  for  resisting  the 
introduction  of  knowledge.  Yet  I have 
my  serious  doubts  as  to  whether  the 
main  object  of  a college  is  the  intro- 
duction of  knowledge.  It  may  be  the 
transmission  of  knowledge  through 
the  human  system,  but  not  much  of  it 
sticks.  Its  introduction  is  temporary; 
it  is  for  the  discipline  of  the  hour. 
Most  of  what  a man  learns  In  college 
he  assiduously  forgets  afterward.  Not 
because  he  purposes  to  forget  it,  but 
because  the  crowding  events  of  the 
days  that  follow  seem  somehow  to 
eliminate  it. 

What  a man  ought  never  to  forget 
with  regard  to  a college  is  that  it  is 
a nursery  of  principle  and  of  honor. 
I cannot  help  thinking  of  William 
Penn  as  a sort  of  spiritual  knight  who 
went  out  upon  his  adventures  to  carry 
the  torch  that  had  been  put  in  his 
hands,  so  that  other  men  might  have 
the  path  illuminated  for  them  which 
led  to  justice  and  to  liberty.  I cannot 
admit  that  a man  establishes  his  right 
to  call  himself  a college  graduate  by 
showing  me  his  diploma.  The  only 
way  he  can  prove  it  is  by  showing 
that  his  eyes  are  lifted  to  some  horizon 
which  other  men  less  instructed  than 
he  have  not  been  privileged  to  see. 
Unless  he  carries  freight  of  the  spirit 
he  has  not  been  bred  where  spirits  are 
bred. 

This  man  Penn,  representing  the 
sweet  enterprise  of  the  quiet  and  pow- 
erful sect  that  called  themselves 
Friends,  proved  his  right  to  the  title 
by  being  the  friend  of  mankind.  He 
crossed  the  ocean,  not  merely  to  es- 
tablish estates  in  America,  but  to  set 
up  a free  commonwealth  in  America 
and  to  show  that  he  was  of  the  lineage 
of  those  who  had  been  bred  in  the  best 
traditions  of  the  human  spirit.  I 
would  not  be  Interested  in  celebrating 
I the  memory  of  .William  P&nn  if  him 


14 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


conquest  had  been  merely  a material 
one.  Sometimes  we  have  been  laughed 
at — by  foreigners  in  particular— for 
boasting  of  the  size  of  the  American 
Continent,  the  size  of  our  own  domain 
as  a nation;  for  they  have,  naturally 
enough,  suggested  that  we  did  not 
make  it.  But  I claim  that  every  race 
and  every  man  is  as  big  as  the  thing 
that  he  takes  possession  of,  and  that 
the  size  of  America  is  in  some  sense  a 
standard  of  the  size  and  capacity  of 
the  American  people.  And  yet  the 
mere  extent  of  the  American  conquest 
is  not  what  gives  America  distinction 
in  the  annals  of  the  world,  but  the 
professed  purpose  of  the  conquest 
which  was  to  see  to  it  that  every  foot 
of  this  land  should  be  the  home  of 
free,  self-governed  people,  who  should 
have  no  government  whatever  which 
did  not  rest  upon  the  consent  of  the 
governed.  I would  like  to  believe  that 
all  this  hemisphere  is  devoted  to  the 
Bame  sacred  purpose  and  that  nowhere 
can  any  government  endure  which  is 
stained  by  blood  or  supported  by  any- 
thing but  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

The  spirit  of  Penn  will  not  be  stayed. 
You  cannot  set  limits  to  such  knightly 
adventurers.  After  their  own  day  is 
gone  their  spirits  stalk  the  world, 
carrying  inspiration  everywhere  that 
they  go  and  reminding  men  of  the 
lineage,  the  fine  lineage,  of  those  who 
have  sought  justice  and  right.  It  is 
no  small  matter,  therefore,  for  a col- 
lege to  have  as  its  patron  saint  a man 
who  went  out  upon  such  a conquest. 
What  I would  like  to  ask  you  young 
people  today  is;  How  many  of  you 
have  devoted  yourselves  to  the  like 
adventure?  How  many  of  you  will 
volunteer  to  carry  these  spiritual 
messages  of  liberty  to  the  world?  How 
many  of  you  will  forego  anything  ex- 
cept your  allegiance  to  that  which  is 


just  and  that  which  is  right?  We  die 
but  once,  and  we  die  without  distinc- 
tion if  we  are  not  willing  to  die  the 
death  of  sacrifice.  Do  you  covet 
honor?  You  will  never  get  it  by  serv- 
ing yourself.  Do  you  covet  distinc- 
tion? You  will  get  it  only  as  the  ser- 
vant of  mankind.  Do  not  forget, 
then,  as  you  walk  these  classic  places, 
why  you  are  here.  You  are  not  here 
merely  to  prepare  to  make  a living. 
You  are  here  in  order  to  enable  the 
world  to  live  more  amply,  with  greater 
vision,  with  a finer  spirit  of  hope  and 
achievement.  You  are  here  to  enrich 
the  world,  and  you  impoverish  your- 
self if  you  forget  the  errand. 

It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  no  great 
difference  between  the  ideals  of  the 
college  and  the  ideals  of  the  State. 
Can  you  not  translate  the  one  into  the 
other?  Men  have  not  had  to  come  to 
college,  let  me  remind  you,  to  quaff 
the  fountains  of  this  inspiration.  You 
are  merely  more  privileged  than  they. 
Men  out  of  every  walk  of  life,  men 
without  advantages  of  any  kind,  have 
seen  the  vision,  and  you,  with  it  writ- 
ten large  upon  every  page  of  your 
studies,  are  the  more  blind  if  you  do 
not  see  it  when  it  is  pointed  out.  You 
could  not  be  forgiven  for  overlooking 
i it.  They  might  have  been.  But  they 
did  not  await  instruction.  They 
simply  drew  the  breath  of  life  into 
their  lungs,  felt  the  aspirations  that 
must  come  to  every  human  soul, 
looked  out  upon  their  brothers,  and 
felt  their  pulses  beat  as  their  fellows' 
beat,  and  then  sought  by  counsel  and 
action  to  move  forward  to  common 
ends  that  would  be  crowned  with 
honor  and  achievement.  This  is  the 
only  glory  of  America.  Let  every  gen- 
eration of  Swarthmore  men  and  wom- 
en add  to  the  strength  of  that  lineage 
and  the  glory  of  that  crown  of  life! 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 

SOUTHERN  COMMERCIAL  CONGRESS,  HELD  AT  MOBILE,  ALA., 

OCTOBER  27,  1913 


OUR  Excellency,  Mr.  Chair- 
man-rrrlt  is  with  unaffected 
pleasure  that  I find  myself 
here  today.  I once  before 
had  the  pleasure  in  another 
Southern  city  of  addressing  the 
Southern  Commercial  Congress.  I 
then  spoke  of  what  the  future  seemed 
to  hold  in  store  for  tlrig  region,  which 
so  many  of  us  love  and  toward  the 
future  of  which  we  all  look  forward 
with  so  much  confidence  and  hope. 
But  another  theme  directed  me  here 
this  time,  d do  not  need  to  speak  of 
the  South.  She  has,  perhaps,  acquired 
the  gift  of  speaking  for  herself.  I 
come  because  I want  to  speak  of  our 
present  and  prospective  relations  with 
our  neighbors  to  the  south.  I deemed 
it  a public  duty,  as  well  as  a personal 
pleasure,  to  be  here  to  express  for 
myself  and  for  the  Government  I rep- 
resent the  welcome  we  all  feel  to 
those  who  represent  the  Latin-Ameri- 
can  States. 

The  future,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is 
going  to  he  very  different  for  this 
hemisphere  from  the  past.  These 
States  lying  to  the  south  of  us,  which 
have  always  been  our  neighbors,  will 


now  be  drawn  closer  to  us  by  innumer- 
able ties,  and,  I hope,  chief  of  all,  by 
the  tie  of  a common  understanding  of 
each  other.  Interest  does  not  tie  na- 
tions together;  it  sometimes  separates 
them.  But  sympathy  and  understand- 
ing does  unite  them,  and  I believe  that 
by  the  new  route  that  is  Just  about  to 
be  opened,  while  we  physically  cut 
two  continents  asunder,  we  spiritually 
unite  them.  It  is  a spiritual  union 
which  we  seek. 

I wonder  if  you  realize,  I wonder  if 
your  imaginations  have  been  filled 
with  the  significance  of  the  tidea  of 
commerce.  Your  governor  alluded  in 
very  fit  and  striking  terms  to  the  voy- 
age of  Columbus,  but  Columbus  took 
his  voyage  under  compulsion  of  cir- 
cumstances.- Constantinople  had  been 
captured  by  the  Turks  and  all  the 
routes  of  trade  with  the  East  had  been 
suddenly  closed.  If  there  was  not  a 
way  across  the  Atlantic  to  open  those 
routes  again,  they  were  closed  for- 
ever, and  Columbus  set  out  not  to  dis- 
cover America,  for  he  difi  hot  know 
that  It  existed,  but  to  discover  the 
eastern  shores  of  Asia.  He  set  salt 
for  Cathay  and  stumbled  upon 


America.  With  that  change  in  the 
outlook  of  the  world,  what  happened? 
England,  that  had  been  at  the  back  of 
Europe  with  an  unknown  sea  behind 
her,  found  that  all  things  had  turned 
as  if  upon  a pivot  and  she  was  at  the 
front  of  Europe;  and  since  then  all 
the  tides  of  energy  and  enterprise 
that  have  issued  out  of  Europe  have 
seemed  to  be  turned  westward  aerosa 
the  Atlantic.  But  you  will  notice  that 
they  have  turned  westward  chiefly 
north  of  the  Equator  and  that  it  is  the 
northern  half  of  the  globe  that  haa 
seemed  to  be  filled  with  the  media  of 
intercourse  and  of  sympathy  and  of 
common  understanding. 

Do  you  not  see  now  what  is  about 
to  happen?  These  great  tides  which 
have  been  running  along  parallels  of 
latitude  will  now  swing  southward 
athwart  parallels  of  latitude,  and  that 
opening  gate  at  the  Isthmus  of  Pana- 
ma will  open  the  world  to  commerce 
that  she  has  not  known  before,  a com- 
merce of  intelligence,  of  thought  and 
sympathy  between  North  and  South. 
The  Latin-American  States,  which,  to 
their  disadvantage,  have  been  off  the 
main  lines,  will  now  be  on  the  main 
lines.  I feel  that  these  gentlemen 
honoring  us  with  their  presence  to- 
day will  find  that  some  part,  at  any 
rate,  of  the  center  of  gravity  of  the 
world  has  shifted.  Do  you  realize  that 
New  Yrork,  for  example,  will  be  nearer 
the  western  coast  of  South  America 
than  she  is  now  to  the  eastern  coast 
of  South  America?  Do  you  realize  that 
a line  drawn  northward  parallel  with 
the  greater  part  of  the  western  coast 
of  South  America  will  run  only  about 
150  miles  west  of  New  York?  The 
great  bulk  of  South  America,  if  you 
will  look  at  your  globes  (not  at  your 
Mercator's  projection),  lies  eastward 
of  the  continent  of  North  America. 
You  will  realize  that  when  you  realize 
that  the  canal  will  run  southeast,  not 
southwest,  and  that  when  you  get  into 
the  Pacific  you  will  be  farther  east 
than  you  were  when  you  left  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  These  things  are  signifi- 
cant, therefore,  of  this,  that  we  are 
closing  one  chapter  in  the  history  of 
the  world  and  are  opening  another, 
of  great,  unimaginable  significance. 

There  is  one  peculiarity  about  the 
history  of  the  Latin-American  States 
which  I am  sure  they  are  .keenly 
aware  of.  You  hear  of  “concessions" 
to  foreign  capitalists  in  Latin-Ameri- 
ca.  You  do  not  hear  of  concessions  to 
foreign  capitalists  in  the  United  States. 
They  are  not  granted  concessions. 
They  are  invited  to  make  investments. 
The  work  is  ours,  though  they  are  wel- 
come to  invest  in  it.  We  do  not  ask 
them  to  supply  the  capital  and  do  the 
work.  It  is  an  invitation,  not  a privi- 
lege; and  States  that  are  obliged,  be- 
cause their  territory  does  not  lie  with- 
in the  main  field  of  modern  enterprise 
and  action,  to  grant  concessions  are 
in  this  condition,  that  foreign  interests 
are  apt  to  dominate  their  domestic  af- 
fairs, a condition  of  affairs  always 
dangerous  and  apt  to  become  Intoler- 
able. What  these  States  are  going  to 
see,  therefore,  is  an  emancipation 
from  the  subordination,  which  has 
been  inevitable,  to  foreign  enterprise 
and  an  assertion  of  the  splendid  char- 
acter which,  in  spite  of  these  difficul- 
ties, they  have  again  and  again  been 
able  to  demonstrate.  The  dignity,  the 
courage,  the  self-possession,  the  self- 
respect  of  the  Latin-American  States, 
their  achievements  in  the  face  of  all 
these  adverse  circumstances,  deserve 
nothing  but  the  admiration  and  ap- 
plause of  the  world.  They  have  had 
harder  bargains  driven  with  them  in 
the  matter  of  loans  than  any  other 
peoples  in  the  world.  Interest  has 
been  exacted  of  them  that  was  not 
exacted  of  anybody  else,  because  the 
risk  was  said  to  be  greater;. and  then 
securities  were  taken  that  destroyed 
! the  risk — an  admirable  arrangement 
l for  those  who  were  forcing  the  terms  I 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


15  ’ 


I rejoice  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  the 
prospect  that  they  will  now  be  eman- 
cipated from  these  conditions,  and 
we  ought  to  be  the  first  to  take  part 
in  assisting  in  that  emancipation.  I 
think  some  of  these  gentlemen  have 
already  had  occasion  to  bear  witness 
that  the  Department  of  State  in  re- 
cent months  has  tried  to  serve  them 
in  that  wise.  In  the  future  they  will 
draw  closer  and  closer  to  us  because 
of  circumstances  of  which  I wish  to 
speak  with  moderation  and,  I hope, 
without  indiscretion. 

We  must  prove  ourselves  their 
friends  and  champions  upon  terms  of 
equality  and  honor.  You  can  not  be 
friends  upon  any  other  terms  than 
upon  the  terms  of  equality.  You  can 
not  be  friends  at  all  except  upon  the 
terms  of  honor.  We  must  show  our- 
selves friends  by  comprehending  their 
interest  whether  it  squares  with  our 
own  interest  or  not.  It  is  a very  peril- 
ous thing  to  determine  the  foreign 
policy  of  a nation  in  the  terms  of  ma- 
terial interest.  It  not  only  is  unfair 
to  those  with  whom  you  are  dealing, 
but  it  is  degrading  as  regards  your 


truly  sets  every  man  free  to  do  his  best 
and  be  his  best,  and  that  means  the 
release  of  all  the  splendid  energies  of 
a great  people  who  think  for  them- 
selves. A nation  of  employees  can 
not  be  free  any  more  than  a nation 
of  employers  can  be. 

In  emphasizing  the  points  which 
must  unite  us  in  sympathy  and  in 
spiritual  interest  with  the  Latin- 
American  peoples  we  are  only  em- 
phasizing the  points  of  our  own  life, 
and  we  should  prove  ourselves  untrue 
to  our  own  traditions  if  we  proved 
ourselves  untrue  friends  to  them.  Do 
not  think,  therefore,  gentlemen,  that 
the  questions  of  the  day  are  mere 
questions  of  policy  and  diplomacy. 
They  are  shot  through  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  life.  We  dare  not  turn  from 
the  principle  that  morality  and  not  ex- 


pediency is  the  thing  that  must  guide 
us  and  that  we  will  never  condone  in- 
iquity because  it  is  most  convenient  to 
do  so.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  a 
day  of  infinite  hope,  of  confidence  in  a 
future  greater  than  the  past  has  been, 
for  I am  fain  to  believe  that  in  spite 
of  all  the  things  that  we  wish  to  cor- 
rect the  Nineteenth  Century  that  now 
lies  behind  us  has  brought  us  a long 
stage  toward  the  time  when,  slowly 
ascending  the  tedious  climb  that  leads 
to  the  final  uplands,  we  shall  get  our 
ultimate  view  of  the  duties  of  man- 
kind. We  have  breasted  a consider- 
able part  of  that  climb  and  shall  pres- 
ently— it  may  be  in  a generation  or 
two — come  out  upon  those  great 
heights  where  there  shines  unob- 
structed the  light  of  the  justice  of 
God. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


own  actions. 

Comprehension  must  be  the  soil  in 
which  shall  grow  all  the  fruits  of 
friendship,  and  there  is  a reason  and 
a compulsion  lying  behind  all  this 
which  is  dearer  than  anything  else 
to  the  thoughtful  men  of  America.  I 
mean  the  development  of  constitu- 
tional liberty  in  the  world.  Human 
rights,  national  integrity,  and  oppor- 
tunity as  against  material  interests — 
that,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  the  issue 
which  we  new  have  to  face.  I want 
to  take  this  occasion  to  say  that  the 
United  States  will  never  again  seek 
one  additional  foot  of  territory  by  con- 
quest. She  will  devote  herself  to 
showing  that  she  knows  how  to  make 
honorable  and  fruitful  use  of  the  ter- 
ritory she  has,  and  she  must  regard 
it  as  one  of  the  duties  of  friendship 
to  see  that  from  no  quarter  are  ma- 
terial interests  made  superior  to  hu- 
man liberty  and  national  opportunity. 

I say  this,  not  with  a single  thought 
that  anyone  will  gainsay  it,  but  merely 
to  fix  in  our  consciousness  what  our 
real  relationship  with  the  rest  of 
America  is.  It  is  the  relationship  of 
a family  of  mankind  devoted  to  the 
development  of  true  constitutional 
liberty.  We  know  that  that  is  the  soil 
out  of  which  the  best  enterprise 
springs.  We  know  that  this  is  a cause 
-which  we  are  making  in  common  with 
our  neighbors,  because  we  have  had 
to  make  it  for  ourselves. 

Reference  has  been  made  here  to- 
day to  some  of  the  national  problems 
which  confront  us  as  a nation.  What 
is  at  the  heart  of  all  our  national  prob- 
lems? It  is  that  we  have  seen  the 
hand  of  material  interest  sometimes 
about  to  close  upon  our  dearest  rights 
and  possessions.  We  have  seen  ma- 
terial interests  threaten  constitutional 
freedom  in  the  United  States.  There- 
fore, we  will  now  know  how  to  sym- 
pathize with  those  in  the  rest  of 
America  who  have  to  contend  with 
such  powers,  not  only  within  their 
borders,  but  from  outside  their  bor- 
ders also. 

I know  what  the  response  or  the 
thought  and  heart  of  America  will  l)e 
t6  the  program  I have  outlined,  be- 
cause America  was  created  to  realize 
a program  like  that.  This  is  not 
America  because  it-  is  rich.  This  is 
not  America  because  it  has  set  up  for 
a great  population  great  opportunities 
of  material  prosperity.  America  is  a 
name  which  sounds  in  the  ears  of  men 
everywhere  as  a synonym  with  indi- 
vidual opportunity  because  a synonym 
of  individual  liberty.  I would  rather 
belong  to  a poor  nation  that  was  free 
than  to  a rich  nation  that  had  ceased 
to  be  in  love  with  liberty.  But  we 
shall  not  be  poor  if  we  love  liberty, 
because  the  nation  that  loves  liberty 


DELIVERED  AT  A JOINT  SESSION  OP  THE 
TWO  HOUSES  OF  CONGRESS 

JANUARY  20,  1914 


ON  TRUSTS  AND  MONOPOLIES 


BNTLEMEN  of  the  Congress — 
In  my  report  “on  the  state  of 
the  Union,”  which  I had  the 
privilege  of  reading  to  you 
on  December  2 last,  I ven- 
tured to  reserve  for  discussion 
at  a later  date  the  subject  of  additional 
legislation  regarding  the  very  diffi- 
cult and  intricate  matter  of  trusts  and 
monopolies.  The  time  now  seems  op- 
portune to  turn  to  that  great  question; 
not  only  because  the  currency  legis- 
lation, which  absorbed  your  attention 
and  the  attention  of  the  country  in 
December,  is  now  disposed  of,  but 
also  because  opinion  seems  to  be  clear- 
ing about  us  with  singular  rapidity  in 
this  other  great  field  of  action.  In  the 
matter  of  the  currency  it  cleared  sud- 
denly and  very  happily  after  the 
much-debated  Act  was  passed;  in  re- 
spect to  the  mopopolies  which  have 
multiplied  about  us  and  in  regard  to 
the  various  means  by  which  they  have 
been  organized  and  maintained  it 
seems  to  be  coming  to  a clear  and  all 
but  universal  agreement  in  anticipa- 
tion of  our  action,  as  if  by  way  of 
preparation,  making  the  way  easier  to 
see  and  easier  to  set  out  upon  with 
confidence  and  without  confusion  of 
counsel. 

Legislation  has  its  atmosphere  like 
everything  else,  and  the  atmosphere 
of  accommodation  and  mutual  under- 
standing which  we  now  breathe  with 
so  much  refreshment  is  matter  of  sin- 
cere congratulation.  It  ought  to  make 
our  task  very  much  less  difficult  and 
embarrassing  than  it  would  have  been 
had  we  been  obliged  to  continue  to  act 
amidst  the  atmosphere  of  suspicion 
and  antagonism  which  has  so  long 
made  it  impossible  to  approach  such 
questions  with  dispassionate  fairness. 
Constructive  legislation,  when  success- 
ful, is  always  the  embodiment  of  con- 
vincing experience,  and  the  mature 


public  opinion  which  finally  springs 
out  of  that  experience.  Legislation  is 
a business  of  interpretation,  not  of 
origination;  and  it  is  now  plain  what 
the  opinion  is  to  which  we  must  give 
effect  in  this  matter.  It  is  not  recent 
or  hasty  opinion.  It  springs  out  of  the 
experience  of  a whole  generation.  It 
has  clarified  itself  by  long  contest,  and 
those  who  for  a long  time  battled  with 
it  and  sought  to  change  it  are  now 
frankly  and  honorably  yielding  to  it 
and  seeking  to  conform  their  actions 
to  it. 

The  great  business  men  who  organ- 
ized and  financed  monopoly  and  those 
who  administered  it  in  actual  every- 
day transactions  have  year  after  year, 
until  now,  either  denied  its  existence 
or  justified  it  as  necessary  for  the  ef- 
fective maintenance  and  development 
of  the  vast  business  processes  of  the 
country  in  the  modern  circumstances 
of  trade  and  manufacture  and  finance; 
but  all  the  while  opinion  has  made 
head  against  them.  The  average  busi- 
ness man  is  convinced  that  the  ways 
of  liberty  are  also  the  ways  of  peace 
and  the  ways  of  success  as  well;  and 
at  last  the  masters  of  business  on  the 
great  scale  have  begun  to  yield  their 
preference  and  purpose,  perhaps  their 
judgment  also,  in  honorable  surrender. 

What  we  are  purposing  to  do,  there- 
fore, is,  happily,  not  to  hamper  or  in- 
terfere with  business  as  enlightened 
business  men  prefer  to  do  it,  or  in  any 
sense  to  put  it  under  the  ban.  The  an- 
tagonism between  business  and  gov- 
ernment is  over.  We  are  now  about 
to  give  expression  to  the  best  business 
judgment  of  America,  'yhat  we 
know  to  be  the  business  conscience  and 
honor  of  the  land.  The  Government 
and  business  men  are  ready  to  meet 
each  other  half  way  in  a common  ef- 
fort to  square  business  methods  wren 
b£th  public  opinion  and  the  law.  The 


IS 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


best  informed  men  of  the  business 
world  condemn  the  methods  and  proc- 
esses and  consequences  of  monopoly  as 
we  condemn  them;  and  the  instinctive 
judgment  of  the  vast  majority  of  busi- 
ness men  everywhere  goes  with  them. 
We  shall  now  be  their  spokesmen. 
That  is  the  strength  of  our  position 
and  the  sure  prophecy  of  what  will  en- 
sue when  our  reasonable  work  is  done. 

When  serious  contest  ends,  when 
men  unite  in  opinion  and  purpose, 
those  who  are  to  change  their  ways  of 
business  joining  with  those  who  ask 
for  the  change,  it  is  possible  to  effect 
it  in  the  way  in  which  prudent  and 
thoughtful  and  patriotic  men  would 
wish  to  see  it  brought  about,  with  as 
few,  as  slight,  as  easy  and  simple 
business  readjustments  as  possible  in 
the  circumstances,  nothing  essential 
disturbed,  nothing  torn  up  by  the  roots, 
no  parts  rent  asunder  which  can  be  left 
in  wholesome  combination.  Fortunate- 
ly, no  measures  of  sweeping  or  novel 
change  are  necessary.  It  will  be  un- 
derstood that  our  object  is  not  to  un- 
settle business  or  anywhere  seriously 
to  break  its  established  courses 
athwart.  On  the  contrary,  we  desire 
the  laws  we  are  now  about  to  pass  to 
be  the  bulwarks  and  safeguards  of  in- 
dustry against  the  forces  that  have 
disturbed  it.  What  we  have  to  do 
can  be  done  in  a rfew  spirit,  in  thought- 
ful moderation,  without  revolution  of 
any  untoward  kind. 

We  are  all  agreed  that  “private  mo- 
nopoly is  indefensible  and  intolerable,” 
and  our  programme  is  founded  upon 
that  conviction.  It  will  be  compre- 
hensive but  not  a radical  or  unaccepta- 
ble programme  and  these  are  its  items, 
the  changes  which  opinion  deliberately 
sanctions  and  for  which  business 
waits: 

It  waits  with  acquiescence,  in  the 
first  place,  for  laws  which  will  effect- 
ually prohibit  and  prevent  such  inter- 
lockings of  the  personnel  of  the  direc- 
torates of  great  corporations — banks 
and  railroads,  industrial,  commercial, 
and  public  service  bodies — as  in  effect 
result  in  making  those  who  borrow 
and  those  who  lend  practically  one  and 
the  same,  those  who  sell  and  those 
who  buy  but  the  same  persons  trading 
with  one  another  under  different 
names  and  in  different  combinations, 
and  those  who  affect  to  compete  in  fact 
partners  and  masters  of  some  whole 
field  of  business.  Sufficient  time 
should  be  allowed,  of  course,  in  which 
to  effect  these  changes  of  organization 
without  inconvenience  or  confusion. 

Such  a prohibition  will  work  much 
more  than  a jnere  negative  good  by 
correcting  the  serious  evils  which  have 
arisen  because,  for  example,  the  men 
who  have  been  the  directing  spirits  of 
the  great  investment  banks  have 
usurped  the  place  which  belongs  to  in- 
dependent industrial  management 
working  in  its  own  behalf.  It  will 
bring  new  men,  new  energies,  a new 
spirit  of  initiative,  new  blood,  into 
the  management  of  our  great  business 
enterprises.  It  will  open  the  field  of 
industrial  development  and  origination 
to  scores  of  men  who  have  been 
obliged  to  serve  when  their  abilities 
entitled  them  to  direct.  It  will  im- 
mensely hearten  the  young  men  coming 
on  and  will  greatly  enrich  the  business 
activities  of  the  whole  country. 

In  the  socond  place,  business  men  as 
well  as  those  who  direct  public  affairs 
*iOW  recognise,  and  recognize  with  pain- 
ful clearness,  the  great  harm  and  in- 
justice which  has  been  done  to  many, 
if  not  all,  of  the  great  railroad  sys- 
tems of  the  country  by  the  way  in 
which  they  have  been  financed  and 
their  own  distinctive  interests  subor- 
dinated to  the  interests  of  the  men  who 
financed  them  and  of  other  business 
enterprises  which  those  men  wished  to 
promote.  The  country  is  ready,  there- 
fore, to  accept,  and  accept  with  relief 
as  well  as  approval,  a law  which  will 


confer  upon  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  the  power  to  superintend 
and  regulate  the  financial  operations 
by  which  the  railroads  are  henceforth 
to  be  supplied  with  the  money  they 
need  for  their  proper  development  to 
meet  the  rapidly  growing  requirements 
of  the  country  for  increased  and  im- 
proved facilities  of  transportation.  We 
cannot  postpone  action  in  this  matter 
without  leaving  the  railroads  exposed 
to  many  serious  handicaps  and  haz- 
ards; and  the  prosperity  of  the  rail- 
roads and  the  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try are  inseparably  connected.  Upon 
this  question  those  who  are  chiefly  re- 
sponsible for  the  actual  management 
and  operation  of  the  railroads  have 
spoken  very  plainly  and  very  earnestly, 
with  a purpose  we  ought  to  be  quick 
to  accept.  It  will  be  one  step,  and  a 
very  important  one,  toward  the  neces- 
sary separation  of  the  business  of  pro- 
duction from  the  business  of  trans- 
portation. 

The  business  of  the  country  awaits 
also,  has  long  awaited  and  has  suffered 
because  it  could  not  obtain,  further  and 
more  explicit  legislative  definition  of 
the  policy  and  meaning  of  the  existing 
antitrust  law.  Nothing  hampers  busi- 
ness like  uncertainty.  Nothing  daunts 
or  discourages  it  like  the  necessity  to 
take  chances,  to  run  the  risk  of  falling 
under  the  condemnation  of  the  law  be- 
fore it  can  make  sure  just  what  the 
law  is.  Surely  we  are  sufficiently  fa- 
miliar with  the  actual  processes  and 
methods  of  monopoly  and  of  the  many 
hurtful  restraints  of  trade  to  make 
definition  possible,  at  any  rate  up  to 
the  limits  of  what  experience  has  dis- 
closed. These  practices,  being  now 
abundantly  disclosed,  can  be  explicitly 
and  item  by  item  forbidden  by  statute 
in  such  terms  as  will  practically  elim- 
inate uncertainty,  the  law  itself  and 
the  penalty  being  made  equally  plain. 

And  the  business  men  of  the  country 
desire  something  more  than  that  the 
menace  of  legal  process  in  these  mat- 
ters be  made  explicit  and  intelligible. 
They  desire  the  advice,  the  definite 
guidance  and  information  which  can 
be  supplied  by  an  administrative  body, 
an  interstate  trade  commission. 

The  opinion  of  the  country  would  in- 
stantly approve  of  such  a commission. 
It  would  not  wish  to  see  it  empowered 
to  make  terms  with  monopoly  or  in  any 
sort  to  assume  control  of  business,  as 
if  the  Government  made  itself  respon- 
sible. It  demands  such  commission 
only  a?  an  indispensable  instrument 
of  information  and  publicity,  as  a 
clearing  house  for  the  facts  by  which 
both  the  public  mind  and  the  mana- 
gers of  great  business  undertakings 
should  be  guided,  and  as  an  instrumen- 
tality for  doing  justice  to  business 
where  the  processes  of  the  courts  or 
the  natural  forces  of  correction  out- 
side the  courts  are  inadequate  to  ad- 
just the  remedy  to  the  wrong  in  a 
way  that  will  meet  all  the  equities  and 
circumstances  of  the  case. 

Producing  industries,  for  example, 
which  have  passed  the  point  up 
to  which  combination  may  be  con- 
sistent with  the  public  interest 
and  the  freedom  of  trade,  can  not 
always  be  dissected  into  their  com- 
ponent units  as  readily  as  railroad 
companies  or  similar  organizations 
can  be.  Their  dissolution  by  ordinary 
legal  process  may  oftentimes  involve 
financial  consequences  likely  to  over- 
whelm the  security  market  and  bring 
upon  it  breakdown  and  confusion. 
There,  ought  to  be  an  administrative 
commission  capable  of  directing  and 
shaping  such  corrective  processes,  not 
only  in  aid  of  the  courts,  but  also  by 
independent  suggestion,  if  necessary. 

Inasmuch  as  our  object  and  the 
spirit  of  our  action  in  these  matters 
is  to  meet  business  half  way  in  its 
processes  of  self-correction  and  dis- 
turb its  legitimate  course  as  little  as 
possible,  we  ought  to  see  to  it,  and 


the  judgment  of  practical  and  saga- 
cious men  of  affairs  everywhere  would 
applaud  us  if  we  did  see  to  it,  that 
penalties  and  punishments  should  fall, 
not  upon  business  itself  to  its  con- 
fusion and  interruption,  but  upon  the 
individuals  who  use  the  instrumen- 
talities of  business  to  do  things  which 
public  policy  and  sound  business  prac- 
tice condemn.  Every  act  of  business 
is  done  at  the  command  or  upon  the 
initiative  of  some  ascertainable  person 
or  group  of  persons.  These  should  be 
held  individually  responsible  and  the 
punishment  should  fall  upon  them, 
not  upon  the  business  organization  of 
which  they  make  illegal  use.  It 
should  be  one  of  the  main  objects  of 
our  legislation  to  divest  such  persons 
of  their  corporate  cloak  and  deal  with 
them  as  with  those  who  do  not  rep- 
resent their  corporations,  but  merely 
by  deliberate  intention  break  the  law. 
Business  men  the  country  through 
would,  I am  sure,  applaud  us  if  we 
were  to  take  effectual  steps  to  see 
that  the  officers  and  directors  of  great 
business  bodies  were  prevented  from 
bringing  them  and  the  business  of  the 
country  into  disrepute  and  danger. 

Other  questions  remain  which  will 
need  very  thoughtful  and  practical 
treatment.  Enterprises,  in  these  mod- 
ern days  of  great  individual  fortunes, 
are  oftentimes  interlocked,  not  by 
being  under  the  control  of  the  same 
directors,  but  by  the  fact  that  the 
greater  part  of  their  corporate  stock 
is  owned  by  a single  person  or  group 
of  persons  who  are  in  some  way  in- 
timately related  in  interest.  We  are 
agreed,  I take  it,  that  holding  com- 
panies should  be  prohibited,  but  what 
of  the  controlling  private  ownership 
of  individuals  or  actually  co-operative 
groups  of  individuals?  Shall  the  pri- 
vate owners  of  capital  stock  be  suf- 
fered to  be  themselves  in  effect  hold- 
ing companies?  We  do  not  wish,  I 
suppose,  to  forbid  the  purchase  of 
stocks  by  any  person  who  pleases  to 
buy  them  in  such  quantities  as  he 
can  afford,  or  in  any  way  arbitrarily 
to  limit  the  sale  of  stocks  to  bona 
fide  purchasers.  Shall  we  require  the 
owners  of  stock,  when  their  voting 
power  in  several  companies  which 
ought  to  be  independent  of  one  an- 
other would  constitute  actual  control, 
to  make  election  in  which  of  them 
they  will  exercise  their  right  to  vote? 
This  question  I venture  for  your  con- 
sideration. 

There  is  another  matter  in  which 
imperative  considerations  of  justice 
and  fair  play  suggest  thoughtful  reme- 
dial action.  Not  only  do  many  of 
the  combinations  effected  or  sought 
to  be  effected  in  the  industrial  world 
work  an  injustice  upon  the  public  in 
general;  they  also  directly  and  seri- 
ously injure  the  individuals  who  are 
put  out  of  business  in  one  unfair  way 
or  another  by  the  many  dislodging  and 
exterminating  forces  of  combination. 
I hope  that  we  shall  agree  in  giving 
private  individuals  who  claim  to  have 
been  injured  by  these  processes  the 
right  to  found  their  suits  for  redress 
upon  the  facts  and  judgments  proved 
and  entered  in  suits  by  the  Govern- 
ment where  the  Government  has  upon 
its  own  initiative  sued  the  combina- 
tions complained  of  and  won  its  suit, 
and  that  the  statute  of  limitations 
shall  be  suffered  to  run  against  such 
litigants  only  from  the  date  of  the 
conclusion  of  the  Government’s  ac- 
tion. It  is  not  fair  that  the  private 
litigant  should  be  obliged  to  set  up 
and  establish  again  the  facts  which  the 
Government  has  proved.  He  can  not 
afford,  he  has  not  the  power,  to  make 
use  of  such  processes  of  inquiry  as 
the  Government  has  command  of. 
Thus  shall  individual  justice  be  done 
•while  the  processes  of  business  are 
rectified  and  squared  with  the  general 
conscience. 

I have  laid  the  case  before  you, 
no  doubt  as  it  lies  in  your  own  mind, 
as  it  lies  in  the  thought  of  the  coun- 

* 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


17  ’ 


try.  What  must  every  candid  man  say 
of  the  suggestions  I have  laid  before 
you,  of  the  plain  obligations  of  which 
I have  reminded  you?  That  these  are 
new  things  for  which  the  country  is 
not  prepared?  'No;  but  that  they  are 
old  things,  now  familiar,  and  must 
of  course  be  undertaken  if  we  are 
to  square  our  laws  with  the  thought 


and  desire  of  the  country.  Until  these 
things  are  done,  conscientious  busi- 
ness men  the  country  over  will  be  un- 
satisfied. They  are  in  these  things 
our  mentors  and  colleagues.  We  are 
now  about  to  write  the  additional 
articles  of  our  constitution  of  peace, 
the  peace  that  is  honor  and  freedom 
and  prosperity. 


their  significance,  and  such  as  to  im- 
press upon  General  Huerta  himself 
the  necessity  of  seeing  to  it  that  no 
further  occasion  for  explanations  and 
professed  regrets  should  arise.  I, 
therefore,  felt  it  my  duty  to  sustain 
Admiral  Mayo  in  the  whole  of  his 
demand  and  to  insist  that  the  flag  of 
the  United  States  should  be  saluted  in 
such  a way  as  to  indicate  a new  spirit 
and  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  Hu- 
ertistas. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

DELIVERED  AT  A JOINT  SESSION  OF  THE  |<  : 

TWO  HOUSES  OF  CONGRESS 


APRIL  20,  1914 


ON  THE  “FLAG  INCIDENT”  IN  MEXICO 


Gentlemen  of  the  congress: 
It  is  my  duty  to  call  your  at- 
tention to  a situation  which 
has  arisen  in  our  dealings 
with  General  Victoriano 
Huerta  at  Mexico  City  which  calls  for 
action,  and  to  ask  your  advice  and  co- 
operation in  acting  upon  it.  On  the 
9th  of  April  a paymaster  of  the  U. 
S.  S.  Dolphin  landed  at  the  Iturbide 
bridge  landing  at  Tampico  with  a 
whaleboat  and  boat’s  crew  to  take  off 
certain  supplies  needed  by  his  ship, 
and  while  engaged  in  loading  the  boat 
was  arrested  by  an  officer  and  squad 
of  men  of  the  army  of  General  Huerta. 
Neither  the  paymaster  nor  anyone  of 
the  boat’s  crew  was  armed.  Two  of 
the  men  were  in  the  boat  when  the 
arrest  took  place  and  were  obliged 
to  leave  it  and  submit  to  be  taken  into 
custody,  not.hwithstanding  the  fact 
that  the  boat  carried,  both  at  her  bow 
and  at  her  stern,  the  flag  of  the  United 
States.  The  officer  who  made  the  ar- 
rest was  proceeding  up  one  of  the 
streets  of  the  town  with  his  prisoners 
when  met  by  an  officer  of  higher  au- 
thority, who  ordered  him  to  return 
to  the  landing  and  await  orders;  and 
within  an  hour  and  a half  from  the 
time  of  the  arrest  orders  were  re- 
ceived from  the  commander  of  the 
Huertista  forces  at  Tampico  for  the 
release  of  the  paymaster  and  his  men. 

The  release  was  followed  by  apolo- 
gies from  the  commander  and  later 
by  an  expression  of  regret  by  General 
Huerta  himself.  General  Huerta 
urged  that  martial  law  obtained  at 
the  time  at  Tampico;  that  orders  had 
been  Issued  that  no  one  should  be  al- 
lowed to  land  at  the  Iturbide  bridge; 
and  that  our  sailors  had  no  right  to 
land  there.  Our  naval  commanders 
at  the  port  had  not  been  notified  of 
any  such  prohibition;  and,  even  if 
they  had  been,  the  only  justifiable 
course  open  to  the  local  authorities 
would  have  been  to  request  the  pay- 
master and  hlg  crew  to  withdraw  and 
to  lodge  a protest  with  the  command- 
ing officer  of  the  fleet.  Admiral  Mayo 
regarded  the  arrest  as  so  serious  an 
affront  that  he  was  not  satisfied  with 
the  apologies  offered,  but  demanded 
that  the  flag  of  the  United  States  be 
saluted  with  special  ceremony  by  the 
i^^t^tary  comnaanclgn  at  #ort.  _ 


The  Incident  can  not  be  regarded 
as  a trivial  one,  especially  as  two  of 
the  men  arrested  were  taken  from  the 
boat  tself — -that  is  to  say,  from  the 
territory  of  the  United  States — but 
had  it  stood  by  itself  it  might  have 
been  attributed  to  the  ignorance  or 
arrogance  of  a single  officer.  Unfor- 
tunately, it  was  not  an  isolated  case. 
A series  of  incidents  have  recently  oc- 
curred which  can  not  but  create  the 
impression  that  the  representatives  of 
General  Huerta  were  willing  to  go 
out  of  their  way  to  show  disregard  for 
the  dignity  and  rights  of  this  Govern- 
ment and  felt  perfectly  safe  in  doing 
what  they  pleased,  making  free  to 
show  in  many  ways  their  irritation 
and  contempt.  A few  days  after  the 
incident  at  Tampico  an  orderly  from 
the  U.  S.  S.  Minnesota  was  arrested 
at  Vera  Cruz  while  ashore  in  uniform 
to  obtain  the  ship’s  mail,  and  was  for 
a time  thrown  into  jail.  An  official 
dispatch  from  this  Government  to  its 
embassy  at  Mexico  City  was  withheld 
by  the  authorities  of  the  telegraphic 
service  until  peremptorily  demanded 
by  our  chargS  d’affaires  in  person.  So 
far  as  I can  learn,  such  wrongs  and 
annoyances  have  been  suffered  to  oc- 
cur only  against  representatives  of  the 
United  States.  I have  heard  of  no 
complaints  from  other  Governments 
of  similar  treatment.  Subsequent  ex- 
planations and  formal  apologies  did 
not  and  could  not  alter  the  popular  im- 
pression, which  it  is  possible  it  had 
been  the  object  of  the  Huertista  au- 
thorities to  create,  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  was  being 
singled  out,  and  might  be  singled  out 
with  Impunity,  for  slights  and  af- 
fronts in  retaliation  for  its  refusal  to 
recognize  the  pretensions  of  General 
Huerta  to  be  regarded  as  the  consti- 
tutional provisional  President  of  the 
Republio  of  Mexico. 

The  manifest  danger  of  such  a situ- 
ation was  that  such  offenses  might 
grow  from  bad  to  worse  until  some- 
thing happened  of  so  gross  and  intol- 
erable a sort  as  to  lead  directly  and 
inevitably  to  armed  conflict.  It  was 
necessary  that  the  apologies  of  Gen- 
eral Huerta  and  his  representatives 
should  go  much  further,  that  they 
should  be  such  as  to  attract  the  at- 
tention of  the  sibilation 


Such  a salute  General  Huerta  has 
refused,  and  I have  come  to  ask  your 
approval  and  support  in  the  course  I 
now  purpose  to  pursue. 

This  Goverment  can,  I earnestly 
hope,  in  no  circumstances  be  forced 
into  war  with  the  people  of  Mexico. 
Mexico  is  torn  by  civil  strife.  If  we 
are  to  accept  the  tests  of  its  own  con- 
stitution, it  has  no  government.  Gen- 
eral Huerta  has  set  his  power  up  in 
the  City  of  Mexico,  such  as  it  is,  with- 
out right  and  by  methods  for  which 
there  can  be  no  justification.  Only 
part  of  the  country  is  under  his  con- 
trol. If  armed  conflict  should  un- 
happily come  as  a result  of  his  atti- 
tude of  personal  resentment  toward 
this  Government,  we  should  be  fight- 
ing only  General  Huerta  and  those 
who  adhere  to  him  and  give  him  their 
support,  and  our  object  would  be  only 
to  restore  to  the  people  of  the  dis- 
tracted Republic  the  opportunity  to 
set  up  again  their  own  laws  and  their 
own  goverment. 

But  I earnestly  hope  that  war  is  not 
now  in  question.  I believe  that  I 
speak  for  the  American  people  when 
I say  that  we  do  not  desire  to  con- 
trol in  any  degree  the  affairs  of  our 
sister  Republic.  Our  feeling  for  the 
people  of  Mexico  is  one  of  deep  and 
genuine  friendship,  and  everything 
that  we  have  so  far  done  or  refrained 
from  doing  has  proceeded  from  our 
desire  to  help  them,  not  to  hinder  or 
embarrass  them.  We  would  not  wish 
even  to  exercise  the  good  offices  of 
friendship  without  their  welcome  and 
consent.  The  people  of  Mexico  are  en- 
titled to  settle  their  own  domestic  af- 
fairs in  their  own  way,  and  we  sin- 
cerely desire  to  respect  their  right. 
The  present  situation  need  have  none 
of  the  grave  implications  of  interfer- 
ence if  we  deal  with  it  promptly, 
firmly,  and  wisely. 

No  doubt  I could  do  what  is  neces- 
sary in  the  circumstances  to  enforce 
respect  for  our  Government  without 
recourse  to  the  Congress,  and  yet  not 
exceed  my  constitutional  powers  as 
President;  but  I do  not  wish  to  act  in 
a matter  possibly  of  so  grave  conse- 
quence except  in  close  conference  and 
co-operation  with  both  the  Senate  and 
House.  I,  therefore,  come  to  ask  your 
approval  that  I should  use  the  armed 
forces  of  the  United  States  In  such 
ways  and  to  such  an  extent  as  may  be 
necessary  to  obtain  from  General  Hu- 
erta and  his  adherents  the  fullest  rec- 
ognition of  the  rights  and  dignity  of 
the  United  States,  even  amidst  the 
distressing  conditions  now  unhappily 
obtaining  in  Mexico. 

There  can  in  what  we  do  be  no 
thought  of  aggression  or  of  selfish  ag- 
grandizement. We  seek  to  maintain 
the  dignity  and  authority  of  the 
United  States  only  because  we  wish 
always  to  keep  our  great  Influence  un- 
impaired for  the  uses  of  liberty,  both 
In  the  United  States  and  wherever 
else  it  may  be  employed,  £bp  the 
of  ’ . 


18 


Eagle  Library-SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 


AT  THE 


BROOKLYN  NAVY  YARD,  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 

MAY  11,  1914 


SERVICES  IN  MEMORY  OF  THOSE  WHO  LOST  THEIR  LIVES  AT 
|,,  VERA  CRUZ,  MEXICO 


R.  SECRETARY — I know  that 
the  feelings  which  charac- 
terize all  who  stand  about 
me  and  the  whole  nation  at 
this  hour  are  not  feelings 
which  can  be  suitably  expressed  in 
terms  of  attempted  oratory  or  elo- 
quence. They  are  things  too  deep  for 
ordinary  speech.  For  my  own  part, 
I have  a singular  mixture  of  feelings. 
The  feeling  that  is  uppermost  is  oneof 
profound  grief  that  these  lads  should 
have  had  to  go  to  their  death;  and 
yet  there  is  mixed  with  that  grief  a 
profound  pride  that  they  should  have 
gone  as  they  did,  and,  :f  I may  say  it 
out  of  my  heart,  a touch  of  envy  of 
those  who  were  permitted  so  quietly, 
60  nobly,  to  do  their  duty.  Have  you 
thought  of  it,  men?  Here  is  the 
roster  of  the  Navy — the  list  of  the 
men,  officers  and  enlisted  men  and 
marines — and  suddenly  there  swim 
nineteen  stars  out  of  the  list — men 
who  have  suddenly  been  lifted  into  a 
firmament  of  memory  where  we  shall 
always  see  their  names  shine,  not  be- 
cause they  called  upon  us  to  admire 
them,  but  because  they  served  us, 
without  asking  any  questions  and  in 
the  performance  of  a duty  which  is 
laid  upon  us  as  well  as  upon  them. 

Duty  is  not  an  uncommon  thing, 
gentlemen.  Men  are  performing  it  in 
the  ordinary  walks  of  life  all  around 
us  all  the  time,  and  they  are  making 
great  sacrifices  to  perform  it.  What 
gives  men  like  these  peculiar  distinc- 
tion is  not  merely  that  they  did  their 
duty,  but  that  their  duty  had  nothing 
to  do  with  them  or  their  own  per- 
sonal and  peculiar  interests.  They  did 
not  give  their  lives  for  themselves. 
They  gave  their  lives  for  us,  because 
we  called  upon  them  as  a nation  to 
perform  an  unexpected  duty.  That  is 
the  way  in  which  men  grow  distin- 
guished, and  that  is  the  only  way,  by 
serving  somebody  else  than  them- 
selves. And  what  greater  thing  could 
you  serve  than  a nation  such  as  this 
we  love  and  are  proud  of?  Are  you 
sorry  for  these  lads?  Are  you  sorry 
for  the  way  they  will  be  remembered? 
Does  it  not  quicken  your  pulses  to 
think  of  the  list  of  them?  I hope  to 
God  none  of  you  may  join  the  list, 
but  if  you  do  you  will  Join  an  im- 
mortal company. 

So,  while  we  are  profoundly  sorrow- 
ful, and  while  there  goes  out  of  our 
hearts  a very  deep  and  affectionate 
sympathy  for  the  friends  and  relatives 
of  these  lads  who  for  the  rest  of 
their  lives  shall  mourn  them,  though 
with  a touch  of  pride,  we  know  why 
we  to  not  go  away  from  this  occasion 
cast  down,  but  with  our  heads  lifted 
and  our  eyes  on  the  future  of  this 
country,  with  absolute  confidence  of 
how  it  will  be  worked  out.  Not  only 
upon  the  mere  vague  future  of  this 
country,  but  upon  the  Immediate  fu- 


ture. We  have  gone  down  to  Mexico 
to  serve  mankind  if  we  can  find  out 
the  way.  We  do  not  want  to  fight  the 
Mexicans.  We  want  to  serve  the  Mexi- 
cans if  we  can,  because  we  know  how 
we  would  like  to  be  free,  and  how 
we  would  like  to  be  served  if  there 
were  friends  standing  by  in  such  case 
ready  to  serve  us.  A war  of  aggres- 
sion is  not  a war  in  which  it  is  a 
proud  thing  to  die,  but  a war  of  serv- 
ice is  a thing  in  which  it  is  a proud 
thing  to  die. 

Notice  how  truly  these  men  were 
of  o^ir  blood.  I mean  of  our  Ameri- 
can Jplood,  which  is  not  drawn  from 
any  one  country,  which  is  not  drawn 
from  any  one  stock,  which  is  not 
drawn  from  any  one  language  of  the 
modern  world;  but  free  men  every- 
where have  sent  their  sons  and  their 
brothers  and  their  daughters  to  this 
country  in  order  to  make  that  great 
compounded  nation  which  consists  of 
all  the  sturdy  elements  and  of  all  the 
best  elements  of  the  whole  globe.  I 
listened  again  to  this  list  of  the  dead 
with  a profound  interest  because  of 
the  mixture  of  the  names,  for  the 
names  bear  the  marks  of  the  several 
national  stocks  from  which  these  men 
came.  But  they  are  not  Irishmen  or 
Germans  or  Frenchmen  or  Hebrews  or 
Italians  any  more.  They  were  not 
when  they  went  to  Vera  Cruz;  they 
were  Americans,  every  one  of  them, 
and  with  no  difference  in  their  Ameri- 
canism because  of  the  stock  from 
which  they  came.  They  were  in  a 
peculiar  sense  of  our  blood,  and  they 
proved  it  by  showing  that  they  were  of 
our  spirit — that  no  matter  what  their 


derivation,  no  matter  where  their  peo- 
ple came  from,  they  thought  and 
wished  and  did  the  things  that  were 
American;  and  the  flag  under  which 
they  served  was  a flag  in  which  all 
the  blood  of  mankind  is  united  to 
make  a free  nation. 

War,  gentlemen,  is  only  a sort  of 
dramatic  representation,  a sort  of  dra- 
matic symbol,  of  a thousand  forms 
of  duty.  I never  went  into  battle;  I 
never  was  under  fire;  but  I fancy  that 
there  are  some  things  just  as  hard 
to  do  as  to  go  under  fire.  I fancy 
that  it  is  just  as  hard  to  do  your  duty 
when  men  are  sneering  at  you  as  when 
they  are  shooting  at  you.  When  they 
shoot  at  you,  they  can  only  take  your 
natural  life;  when  they  sneer  at  you, 
they  can  wound  your  living  heart,  and 
men  who  are  brave  enough,  steadfast 
enough,  steady  in  their  principles 
enough,  to  go  about  their  duty  with 
regard  to  their  fellow  men,  no  matter 
whether  there  are  hisses  or  cheers, 
men  who  can  do  what  Rudyar 
ling  in  one  of  his  poems  wrote.  Meet 
with  triumph  and  disaster  and  treat 
those  two  imposters  just  the  same, 
are  men  for  a nation  to  be  proud  of. 
Morally  speaking,  disaster  and  tri- 
umph are  imposters.  The  cheers  of 
the  moment  are  not  what  a man  ought 
to  thing  about,  but  the  verdict  of  his 
conscience  and  of  the  consciences  or 
mankind.  _ . , . - — 

When  I look  at  you,  I feel  as  n 1 
also  and  we  all  were  en listed  mem 
Not  enlisted  in  your  particular  Diancn 
of  the  service,  but  enlisted  to  serve 
the  country,  no  matter  what  may 
come,  even  though  we  may  sacrifice 
our  lives  in  the  arduous  endeavor. 
We  are  expected  to  put  the  utmost 
energy  of  every  power  that  we  have 
into  the  service  of  our  fellow  men, 
never  sparing  ourselves,  not  conde- 
scending to  think  of  what  is  Wing 
to  happen  to  ourselves,  out  rea<’£>  “ 
need  be.  to  go  to  the  utter  length  of 
complete  self-sacrifice. 

as  T stand  and  look  at  you  today 
and  think  of  these  spirits  that  have 
gone  from  us,  I know  that  the  road 
is  clearer  for  the  future.  These,  boys 
have  shown  us  the  way,  and  it  is 
easier  to  walk  on  it  because  they  nave 
gone  before  and  shown  us  how.  May 
God  grant  to  all  of  us  that  vision  or 
patriotic  service  which  here  in  solem- 
nity and  grief  and  pride  is  borne  ia 
upon  our  hearts  and  consciences! 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 


AT  THE 


UNVEILING  OF  THE  STATUE  TO  THE  MEMORY 


OF 


COMMODORE  JOHN  BARRY 

AT  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  SATURDAY,  MAY  16,  1914 


R.  SECRETARY,  Radies  and 
Gentlemen — I esteem  it  a 
privilege  to  lie  present  on 
this  interesting  occasion, 
and  I am  very  much  tempt- 
ed to  anticipate  some  part  of  what 
the  orators  of  the  day  will  say  about 
the  character  of  the  great  man  whose 
memory  we  celebrate.  If  I were  to  at- 
tempt an  historical  address,  I might, 
however,  be  led  too  far  afield.  I am 
going  to  take  the  liberty,  therefore, 
of  drawing  a few  inferences  from  the 
significance  of  this  occasion. 


I think  that  we  can  never  be  pves- 
ent  at  a ceremony  of  this  kind,  which 
carries  our  thought  back  to  the  great 
Revolution,  by  means  of  which  our 
Government  was  set  up,  without  feel- 
ing that  it  is  an  occasion  of  reminder, 
of  renewal,  of  refreshment,  when  we 
turn  our  thoughts  again  to  the  great 
issues  which  were  presented  to  the 
little  nation,  which  then  asserted  its 
independence  to  the  world;  to  which 
it  spoke  both  in  eloquent  ■representa- 
tions of  its  cause  and  In  the  sound 
of  arms,  and  ask  ourselves  what  it 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


19 


Was  that  these  men  fought  for.  No 
one  can  turn  to  the  career  of  Commo- 
dore Barry  without  feeling  a touch  of 
the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  devot- 
ed an  originating  mind  to  the  great 
cause  which  he  intended  to  serve,  and 
it  behooves  us,  living  in  this  age 
when  no  man  can  question  the  power 
of  the  nation,  when  no  man  would 
dare  to  doubt  its  right  and  its  deter- 
mination to  act  for  itself,  to  ask  what 
it  was  that  filled  the  hearts  of  these 
men  when  they  set  the  nation  up. 

For  patriotism,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, is  in  my  mind  not  merely  a sen- 
timent. There  is  a certain  efferves- 
cence, I suppose,  which  ought  to  be 
permitted  to  those  who  allow  .their 
hearts  to  speak  in  the  celebration  of 
the  glory  and  majesty  of  their  coun- 
try, but  the  country  can  have  no  glory 
and  no  majesty  unless  there  be  a deep 
principle  and  conviction  back  of  the 
enthusiasm.  Patriotism  is  a principle, 
not  a mere  sentiment.  No  man  can  be 
a true  patriot  who  does  not  feel  him- 
self shot  through  and  through  with 
a deep  ardor  for  what  his  country 
stands  for,  what  its  existence  means, 
what  its  purpose  is  declared  to  be  in 
its  history  and  in  its  policy.  I recall 
those  solemn  lines  of  the  poet  Tenny- 
son on  which  he  tries  to  give  voice  to 
his  conception  of  what  it  is  that  stirs 
within  a nation:  “Some  sense  of  duty, 
something  of  a faith,  some  reverence 
for  the  laws  ourselves  have  made, 
some  patient  force  to  change  them 
when  we  will,  some  civic  manhood 
firm  against  the  crowd”;  steadfast- 
ness, clearness  of  purpose,  courage, 
persistency  and  that  uprightness 
which  comes  from  the  clear  thinking 
of  men  who  wish  to  serve  not  them- 
selves but  their  fellow  men. 

What  does  the  United  States  stand 
for,  then,  that  our  hearts  should  be 
stirred  by  the  memory  of  the  men  who 
set  her  Constitution  up?  John  Barry 
fought,  like  every  other  man  in  the 
Revolution,  in  order  that  America 
might  be  free  to  make  her  own  life 
without  interruption  or  disturbance 
from  any  other  quarter.  You  can 
sum  the  whole  thing  up  in  that,  that 
America  had  a right  to  her  own  self- 
determined  life;  and  what  are  our  co- 
rollaries from  that?  You  do  not  have 
to  go  back  to  stir  your  thoughts  again 
with  the  issues  of  the  Revolution. 
Some  of  the  issues  of  the  Revolution 
were  not  the  cause  of  it,  but  merely 
the  occasion  for  it.  There  are  just 
as  vital  things  stirring  now  that 
concern  the  existence  of  the  nation  as 
were  stirring  then,  and  every  man 
who  worthily  stands  in  this  pres- 
ence should  examine  himself  and  see 
whether  he  has  the  full  conception  of 
what  it  means  that  America  should 
live  her  own  life.  Washington  saw  it 
when  he  wrote  his  farewell  address. 
It  was  not  merely  because  of  passing 
and  transient  circumstances  that 
Washington  said  that  we  must  keep 
free  from  entangling  alliances.  It 
was  because  he  saw  that  no  country 
had  yet  set  its  face  in  the  same  di- 
rection in  which  America  had  set  her 
face.  We  can  not  form  alliances  with 
those  who  are  not  going  our  way;  and 
in  our  might  and  majesty  and  in  the 
confidence  and  definiteness  of  our  own 
purpose  we  need  not  and  should  not 
form  alliances  with  any  nation  in  the 
world.  Those  who  are  right,  those 
who  study  their  consciences  in  deter- 
mining their  - policies,  those  who  hold 
their  honor'higher  than  their  advan- 
tage, do  not  need  alliances.  You  need 
alliances  when  you  are  not  strong, 
and  you  are  weak  only  when  you  are 
not  true  to  yourself.  You  are  weak 
only  when  you  are  in  the  wrong;  you 
are  weak  only  when  you  are  afraid 
to  do  the  right;  you  are  weak  only 
when  you  doubt  your  cause  and  the 
majesty  of  a nation’s  might  asserted. 
Thera another  corollary,  John  Bar- 
ry wasian  Irishman,  but  his  heart 
crossed  the  Atlantic  with  him.  He  did 
cot  leave  it  in  Ireland.  And  the  test 


of  all  of  us — for  all  of  us  had  our  ori- 
gins on  the  other  side  of  the  sea— 
is  whether  we  will  assist  in  enabling 
America  to  live  her  separate  and  inde- 
pendent life,  retaining  our  ancient 
affections,  indeed,  but  determining 
everything  that  we  do  by  the  interests 
that  exist  on  this  side  of  the  sea. 
Some  Americans  need  hyphens  in 
their  names,  because  only  part  of 
them  has  come  over;  but  when  the 
whole  man  has  come  over,  heart  and 
thought  and  all,  the  hyphen  drops  of 
its  own  weight  out  of  his  name. 
This  man  was  not  an  Irish-American; 
he  was  an  Irishman  who  became  an 
American.  I venture  to  say  if  he 
voted  he  voted  with  regard  to  the 
questions  as  they  looked  on  this  side 
of  the  water  and  not  as  they  affected 
the  other  side;  and  that  is  my  infal- 
lible test  of  a genuine  American,  that 
when  he  votes  or  when  he  acts  or 
when  he  fights  his  heart  and  his 
thought  are  centered  nowhere  but  in 
the  emotions  and  the  purposes  and  the 
policies  of  the  United  States. 

This  man  illustrates  for  me  all  the 
splendid  strength  which  we  brought 
into  this  country  by  the  magnet  of 
freedom.  Men  have  been  drawn  to 
this  country  by  the  same  thing  that 
has  made  us  love  this  country— by 
the  apportunity  to  live  their  own  lives 
and  to  think  their  own  thoughts  and 
to  let  their  whole  natures  expand  with 
the  expansion  of  a free  and  mighty 
nation.  We  have  brought  out  of 
the  stocks  of  all  the  world  all  the 
best  impulses  and  have  appropriated 


them  and  Americanized  them  and 
translated  them  into  the  glory  and 
majesty  of  a great  country. 

So,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  when  we 
go  out  from  this  presence  we  ought 
to  take  this  idea  with  us  that  we,  too, 
are  devoted  to  the  purpose  of  enabling 
America  to  live  her  own  life,  to  be 
the  justest,  the  most  progressive,  the 
most  honorable,  the  most  enlightened 
nation  in  the  world.  Any  man  that 
touches  our  honor  is  our  enemy.  Any 
man  who  stands  in  the  way  of  the 
kind  of  progress  which  makes  for 
human  freedom  can  not  call  himself 
our  friend.  Any  man  who  does  not  feel 
behind  him  the  whole  push  and  rush 
and  compulsion  that  filled  men’s  hearts 
in  the  time  of  the  Revolution  is  no 
American.  No  man  who  thinks  first  of 
himself  and  afterwards  of  his  coun- 
try can  call  himself  an  American. 
America  must  be  enriched  by  us.  We 
must  not  live  upon  her;  she  must  live 
by  means  of  us. 

I,  for  one,  come  to  this  shrine  to  re- 
new the  impulses  of  American  demo- 
cracy. I would  be  ashamed  of  myself 
if  I went  away  from  this  place  with- 
out realizing  again  that  every  bit  of 
selfishness  must  be  purged  from  our 
policy,  that  every  bit  of  self-seeking 
must  be  purged  from  our  individu- 
al consciences,  and  that  we  must  be 
great,  if  we  would  be  great  at  all,  in 
the  light  and  illumination  of  the  ex- 
ample of  men  who  gave  everything 
that  they  were  and  everything  that 
they  had  to  the  glory  and  honor  of 
America.  


ADDRESS  OF 


PRESIDENT  WILSON 


AT 


ARLINGTON 

MAY  30,  1914  J. 


LADIES  and  Gentlemen — I have 
not  come  here  today  with  a 
prepared  address.  The  com- 
mittee in  charge  of  the  exer- 
cises of  the  day  has  gra- 
ciously excused  me  on  the  grounds  of 
public  obligations  from  preparing  such 
an  address,  but  I will  not  deny  myself 
the  privilege  of  joining  with  you  in  an 
expression  of  gratitude  and  admiration 
for  the  men  who  perished  for  the  sake 
of  the  Union.  They  do  not  need  our 
praise.  They  do  not  need  that  our  ad- 
miration should  sustain  them.  There 
is  no  immortality  that  is  safer  than 
theirs.  We  come  not  for  their  sakes, 
but  for  our  own,  in  order  that  we  may 
drink  at  the  same  springs  of  inspira- 
tion from  which  they  themselves 
drank. 

A peculiar  privilege  came  to  the 
men  who  fought  for  the  Union.  There 
is  no  other  civil  war  in  history,  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  the  stings  of  which 
were  removed  before  the  men  who 
did  the  fighting  passed  from  the  stage 
of  life.  So  that  we  owe  these  men 
something  more  than  a legal  re-estab- 
lishment  of  the  Union.  We  owe  them 
the  spiritual  re-establishment  of  the 
Union  as  well;  for  they  not  only  re- 
united States,  they  reunited  the  spirits 
of  men,  That  is  their  unique  achieve- 
ment, unexampled  anywhere  else  in 
I the  annals  of  mankind,  that  the  very 
i men  whom  they  overcame  in  battle 


— -M'7 

join  in  praise  and  gratitude  that  the 
Union  was  saved.  There  is  something 
peculiarly  beautiful  and  peculiarly 
touching  about  that.  Whenever  a 
man  who  is  still  trying- to  devote  him- 
self to  the  service  of  the  nation  comes 
into  a presence  like  this,  or  into  a 
place  like  this,  his  spirit  must  be  pe- 
culiarly moved.  A mandate  is  laid 
upon  him  which  tseems  to  speak  from 
the  very  graves  themselves.  Those 
who  serve  this  nation,  whether  in 
peace  or  in  “war,  should  serve  it  with- 
out thought  of  themselves.  I can  never 
speak  in  praise  of  war,  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen; you  would  not  desire  me  to  do 
so.  But  there  is  this  peculiar  distinc- 
tion belonging  to  the  soldier,  that  he 
goes  into  an  enterprise  out  or  Which 
he  himself  cannot  get  anything  at  all. 
He  is  giving  everything  that  he  hath, 
even  his  life,  in  order  that  others  may 
live,  not  in  order  that  he  himself  may 
obtain  gain  and  prosperity.  And  Just 
so  soon  as  the  tasks  of  peace  are  "per- 
formed in  the  same  spirit  of  self-sacri- 
fice and  devotion,  peace  societies  will 
not  be  necessary.  The  very  organiza- 
tion and  spirit  of1  society  "will  be  a 
guaranty  of  peace. 

Therefore,  this  peculiar  thing-comes 
about,  that  we  can  stand  here  and 
praise  the  memory  of  these  soldiers 
in  the  interest  of  peace.  They  set  us 
the  example  of  self-sacrifice,  which  if 
followed  in  peace  will  make  it  un- 
necessary that  men  should  follow  war 
any  more. 

We  are  repu*ed  to  be  somewhat 
careless  in  our  discrimination  between 
wolds  in  the  use  of  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  yet  it  is  interesting  to  uoi« 


20 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


that  there  are  some  words  about  which 
we  are  very  careful.  We  bestow  the 
adjective  “great”  somewhat  indis- 
criminately. A man  who  has  made 
conquest  of  his  fellowmen  for  his  own 
gain  may  display  such  genius  in  war, 
such  uncommon  qualities  of  organiza- 
tion and  leadership  that  we  may  call 
him  “great,”  but  there  is  a word  which 
we  reserve  for  men  of  another  kind 
and  about  which  we  are  very  careful; 
that  is  the  word  “noble.”  We  never 
call  a man  “noble"  who  serves  only 
himself;  and  if  you  will  look  about 
through  all  the  nations  of  the  world 
upon  the  statues  that  men  have 
erected — upon  the  inscribed  tablets 
where  they  have  wished  to  keep  alive 
the  memory  of  the  citizens  whom  they 
d»«ire  most  to  honor — you  will  find 
"that  almost  without  exception  they 
have  erected  the  statue  to  those  who 
had  a splendid  surplus  of  energy  and 
devotion  to  spend  upon  their  fellow- 
men.  Nobolity  exists  in  America 
without  patent.  We  have  no  House 
of  Lords,  but  we  have  a house  of 
fame  to  which  we  elevate  those  who 
are  the  noble  men  of  our  race,  who, 
forgetful  of  themselves,  study  and 
serve  the  public  interest,  who  have 
the  courage  to  face  any  number  and 
any  kind  of  adversary,  to  speak  what 
in  their  hearts  they  believe  to  be  the 
truth. 


We  admire  physical  courage,  but 
we  admire  above  all  things  else  moral 
courage.  I believe  that  soldiers  will 
bear  me  out  in  saying  that  both  come 
in  time  of  battle.  I take  it  that  the 
moral  courage  comes  in  going  in  the 
battle,  and  the  physical  courage  in 
staying  in.  There  are  battles  which 
are  just  as  hard  to  go  into  and  just  as 
hard  to  stay  in  as  the  battles 
of  arms,  and  if  the  man  will 
but  stay  and  think  never  of  himself 
there  will  come  a time  of  grateful 
recollection  when  men  will  speak  of 
him  not  only  with  admiration  but  with 
that  which  goes  deeper,  with  affection 
and  with  reverence. 

So  that  this  flag  calls  upon  us  daily 
for  service,  and  the  more  quiet  and 
self-denying  the  service  the  greater 
the  glory  of  the  flag.  We  are  dedi- 
cated to  freedom,  and  that  freedom 
means  the  freedom  of  the  human 
spirit.  All  free  spirits  ought  to  con- 
gregate on  an  occasion  like  this  to  do 
homage  to  the  greatness  of  America 
as  illustrated  by  the  greatness  of  her 
sons. 

It  has  been  a privilege,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  to  come  and  say  these  sim- 
ple words,  which  I am  sure  are  merely 
putting  your  thought  into  language 
I thank  you  for  the  opportunity  to  lay 
this  little  wreath  of  mine  upon  the 
consecrated  graves. 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

TO 

THE  GRADUATING  CLASS  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  NAVAL  ACADEMY 


ANNAPOLIS,  MARYLAND,  JUNE  5,  1914 


R.  SUPERINTENDENT, 
YOUNG  GENTLEMEN,  LA- 
DIES and  GENTLEMEN 
—During  the  greater  part  of 
my  life  I have  been  asso- 
ciated with  young  men,  and  on  occa- 
sions it  seems  to  me  without  number 
have  faced  bodies  of  youngsters  going 
out  to  take  part  in  the  activities  of 
the  world,  but  I have  a consciousness 
of  a different  significance  in  this  oc- 
casion from  that  which  I have  felt  on 
other  similar  occasions.  When  I have 
faced  the  graduating  classes  at  uni- 
versities I have  felt  that  I was  facing 
a great  conjuncture.  They  were  going 
out  into  all  sorts  of  pursuits  and  with 
every  degree  of  preparation  for  the 
particular  thing  they  were  expecting 
to.  do;  some  without  any  preparation 
Sit  all,  for  they  aid  not  know  what 
they  expected  to  do.  But  in  facing 
you  I am  facing  men  who  are  trained 
for  a special  thing.  You  know  what 
you  are  going  to  do,  and  you  are  under 
the  eye  of  the  whole  nation  in  doing 
it.  For  you,  gentlemen,  are  to  be  part 
of  the  power  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States.  There  is  a very 
deep  and  solemn  significance  in  that 
fact,  and  I am  sure  that  every  one  of 
you  feels  it.  The  moral  is  perfectly 
Obvious.  Be  ready  and  fit  for  any- 
thing that  you  have  to  do.  And  keep 
ready  and  fit.  Do  not  grow  slack. 
Do  not  suppose  that  your  education 
is  over  because  you  have  received 
your  diplomas  from  the  academy. 
Your  education  has  just  begun.  More- 


over, you  are  to  have  a very  peculiar 
privilege  which  not  many  of  your  pre- 
decessors have  had.  You  are  your- 
selves going  to  become  teachers.  You 
are  going  to  teach  those  50,000  fellow 
countrymen  of  yours  who  are  the  en- 
listed men  of  the  Navy.  You  are 
going  to  make  them  fitter  to  obey 
your  orders  and  to  serve  the  country. 
You  are  going  to  make  them  fitter  to 
see  what  the  orders  mean  in  their  out- 
look upon  life  and  jpon  the  service; 
and  that  is  a great  privilege,  for  out 
of  you  is  going  the  energy  and  intel- 
ligence which  are  going  to  quicken 
the  whole  body  of  the  United  States 
Navy. 

I congratulate  you  upon  that  pros- 
pect, but  I want  to  ask  you  not  to  get 
the  professional  point  of  view.  I would 
ask  it  of  you«  if  you  were  lawyers;  I 
would  ask  it  of  you  if  you  were  mer- 
chants; I would  ask  it  of  you  whatever 
you  expected  to  be.  Do  not  get  the 
professional  point  of  view.  There  is 
nothing  narrower  or  more  unservice- 
able than  the  professional  point  of 
view,  to  have  the  attitude  toward  life 
that  it  centers  in  ybur  profession.  It 
does  not.  Your  profession  is  only  one 
of  the  many  activities  which  are 
meant  to  keep  the  world  straight,  and 
to  keep  the  energy  in  its  blood  and  in 
its  muscle.  We  are  all  of  us  in  this 
world,  as  I understand  it,  to  set  for- 
ward the  affairs  of  the  whole  world, 
though  we  play  a special  part  in  that 
great  function.  The  Navy  goes  all 
over  the  world,  and  I think  it  is  to 
be  congratulated  upon  having  that  sort 
of  illustration  of  what  the  world  is 
and  what  it  contains;  and  inasmuch  as 
you  are  going  all  over  the  world  you 
ought  to  be  the  better  able  to  see  the 


relation  that  your  country  bears  to 
the  rest  of  the  world. 

It  ought  to  be  one  of  your  thoughts 
all  the  time  that  you  are  sample 
Americans — not  merely  sample  Navy 
men,  not  merely  sample  soldiers,  but 
sample  Americans — and  that  you  have 
the  point  of  view  of  America  with  re- 
gard to  her  Navy  and  her  Army;  that 
she  is  using  them  as  the  instruments 
of  civilization,  not  as  the  instruments 
of  aggression.  The  idea  of  America 
is  to  serve  humanity,  and  every  time 
you  let  the  Stars  and  Stripes  free  to 
the  wind  you  ought  to  realize  that 
that  is  in  itself  a message  that  you 
are  on  an  errand  which  other  navies 
have  sometimes  forgotten;  not  an  er- 
rand of  conquest,  but  an  errand  of 
service.  I always  have  the  same 
thought  when  I look  at  the  flag  of  the 
United  States,  for  I know  something 
of  the  history  of  the  struggle  of  man- 
kind for  liberty.  When  I look  at  that 
flag  it  seems  to  me  as  if  the  white 
stripes  tvere  strips  of  parchment  upon 
which  are  written  the  rights  of  man, 
and  the  red  stripes  the  streams  of 
blood  by  which  those  rights  have  been 
made  good.  Then  in  the  little  blue 
firmament  in  the  corner  have  swung 
out  the  stars  of  the  States  of  the 
American  Union.  So  it  is,  as  it  were, 
a sort  of  floating  charter  that  has 
come  down  to  us  from  Runnymede, 
when  men  said,  “We  will  not  have 
masters;  we  will  be  a people,  and  we 
will  seek  our  own  liberty.” 

You  are  not  serving  a government, 
gentlemen;  you  are  serving  a people. 
For  we  who  for  the  time  being  con- 
stitute the  Government  are  merely  in- 
struments for  a little  while  in  the 
hands  of  a great  nation  which  chooses 
whom  it  will  to  carry  out  its  decrees 
and  who  invariably  rejects  the  man 
who  forgets  the  ideals  which  it  in- 
tended him  to  serve.  So  that  I hope 
that  wherever  you  go  you  will  have  a 
generous,  comprehending  love  of  the 
people  you  come  into  contact  with, 
and  will  come  back  and  tell  us,  if  you 
can,  what  service  the  United  States 
can  render  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
world;  tell  us  where  you  see '’men  suf- 
fering; tell  us  where  you  think  advice 
will  lift  them  up;  tell  us  where  you 
think  that  the  counsel  of  statesmen 
may  better  the  fortunes  of  unfortunate 
men;  always  having  it  in  mind  that 
you  are  champions  of  what  is  right 
and  fair  all  ’round  for  the  public  wel- 
fare, no  matter  where  you  are,  and 
that  it  is  that  you  are  ready  to  fight 
for  and  not  merely  on  the  drop  of  a 
hat  or  upon  some  slight  punctillio,  but 
that  jjou  are  champions  of  your  fellow 
men,  particularly  of  that  great  body 
one  hundred  million  strong  whom  you 
represent  in  the  United  States. 

What  do  you  think  is  the  most  last-  i 
ing  impression  that  those  boys  down  I 
at  Vera  Cruz  are  going  to  leave?  They  ! 
have  had  to  use  some  force — I pray 
God  it  may  not  be  necessary  for  them  ! 
to  use  any  more — but  do  you  think 
that  the  way  they  fought  is  going  to 
be  the  most  lasting  impression?  Have 
men  not  fought  ever  since  the  world  / 
began?  Is  there  anything  new  in  using 
force?  The  new  things  in  the  world 
are  the  things  that  are  divorced  from  | 
force.  The  things  that  show  the  moral  ' 
compulsions  of  the  human  conscience/! 
those  are  the  things  by  which  we  have  8 
been  building  up  civilization,  not  byd 
force.  And  the  lasting  impression  that  9 
those  boys  are  going  to  leave  is  this,  1 
that  they  exercise  self-control;  that-d 
they  are  ready  and  diligent  to  make  1 j 
the  place  where  they  went  fitter  to 
live  in  than  they  found  it;  that  they  \ 
regarded  other  people’s  rights;  that 
they  did  not  strut  and  bluster,  but 
went  quietly,  like  self-respecting  gen- 
tlemen, about  their  legitimate  work. 
And  the  people  of  Vera  Cruz,  who  I 
feared  the  Americans  and  despised  the 
Americans,  are  going  to  get  a very  v 
different  taste  in  their  mouths  about,  X 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


21 


the  whole  thing  when  the  boys  of  the 
Navy  and  the  Army  come  away.  Is 
that  not  something  to  be  proud  of, 
that  you  know  how  to  use  force  like 
men  of  conscience  and  like  gentlemen, 
serving  your  fellow  men  and  not  try- 
ing to  overcome  them?  Like  that  gal- 
lant gentleman  who  has  so  long  borne 
the  heats  and  perplexities  and  dis-  i 
tresses  of  the  situation  in  Vera  Cruz— 
Admiral  Fletcher.  I mention  him,  be- 
cause his  service  there  has  been  longer  j 
and  so  much  of  the  early  perplexities 
fell  upon  him.  I have  been  in  almost 
daily  communication  with  Admiral 
Fletcher,  and  I have  tested  his  temper. 

I have  tested  his  discretion.  I know 
that  he  is  a man  with  a touch  of 
statesmanship  about  him,  and  he  has 
grown  bigger  in  my  eye  each  day  as  I 
have  read  his  dispatches,  for  he  has 
Bought  always  to  serve  the  thing  he 
was  trying  to  do  in  the  temper  that  we 
all  recognize  and  love  to  believe  is 
typically  American. 

I challenge  you  youngsters  to  go  out 
with  these  conceptions,  knowing  that 
you  are  part  of  the  Government  and 
force  of  the  United  States  and  that 
men  will  judge  us  by  you.  I am  not 
afraid  of  the  verdict.  I cannot  look  in 
your  faces  and  doubt  what  it  will  be, 
but  I want  you  to  take  these  great  en- 

i 


gines  of  force  out  onto  the  seas  like  ad- 
venturers enlisted  for  the  elevation  of 
the  spirit  of  the  human  race.  For  that 
is  the  only  distinction  that  America 
has.  Other  nations  have  been  strong, 
other  nations  have  piled  wealth  as 
high  as  the  sky,  but  they  have  come 
into  disgrace,  because  they  used  their 
force  and  their  wealth  for  the  oppres- 
sion of  mankind  and  their  own  ag- 
grandizement; and  America  will  not 
bring  glory  to  herself,  but  disgrace, 
by  following  the  beaten  paths  of  his- 
tory. We  must  strike  out  upon  new 
paths,  and  we  must  count  upon 
you  gentlemen  to  be  the  explor- 
ers who  will  carry  this  spirit  and 
spread  this  message  all  over  the  seas 
and  in  every  port  of  the  civilized  world. 

You  see,  therefore,  why  I said  that 
when  I faced  you  I felt  there  was  a 
special  significance.  I am  not  present 
on  an  occasion  when  you  are  about 
to  scatter  on  various  errands.  You  are 
all  going  on  the  same  errand,  and  1 
like  to  feel  bound  with  you  in  one  com~ 
mon  organization  for  the  glory  of 
America.  And  her  glory  goes  deeper 
than  the  sound  of  guns  and  the  clash 
of  sabers;  it  goes  down  to  the  very 
foundations  of  those  things  that  have 
made  the  spirit  of  men  free  and  happy 
and  content. 


they  live  their  own  life,  and  they  will 
not  have  that  life  disturbed  and  dis- 
colored by  fraternal  misunderstand- 
ings. I know  that  a reuniting  of 
spirits  like  this  can  take  place  more 
quickly  in  our  time  than  in  any  other 
because  men  are  now  united  by  an 
easier  transmission  of  those  influences 
which  make  up  the  foundations  of 
peace  and  of  mutual  understanding, 
but  no  process  can  work  these  effects 
unless  there  is  a conducting  medium. 
The  conducting  medium  in  this  in- 
stance is  the  united  heart  of  a great 
people.  I am  not  going  to  detain  you 
by  trying  to  repeat  any  of  the  eloquent 
thoughts  which  have  moved  us  this 
afternoon,  for  I rejoice  in  the  simplic- 
ity of  the  task  which  is  assigned  to  mo. 
My  privilege  is  this,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men: To  declare  this  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  United  States  closed  and 
ended,  and  I bid  you  turn  with  me 
with  your  faces  to  the  future,  quick- 
ened by  the  memories  of  the  past,  but 
with  nothing  to  do  with  the  contests 
of  the  past,  knowing,  as  we  have  shed 
our  blood  upon  opposite  sides,  we  now 
face  and  admire  one  another.  I do  not 
know  how  many  years  ago  it  was  that 
the  Century  Dictionary  was  published, 
but  I remember  one  day  in  the  Cen- 
tury Cyclopedia  of  Names  I had  occa- 
sion to  turn  to  the  name  of  Robert  E. 
Lee,  and  I found  him  there  in  that 
book  published  in  New  York  City  sim- 
ply described  as  a great  American  gen- 
eral. The  generosity  of  our  Judgments 
did  not  begin  today.  The  generosity 
of  our  judgment  \Vas  made  up  soon 
after  this  great  struggle  was  over. 
Men  came  and  sat  together  again  in 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

ACCEPTING  THE  MONUMENT  IN  MEM- 
ORY OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  DEAD 
AT  ARLINGTON  NATIONAL  CEMETERY 

JUNE  4,  1914 


R.  CHAIRMAN,  Mrs.  McLau- 
rin  Stevens,  Ladies  and  Gen- 
tlemen:— I assure  you  that  I 
am  profoundly  aware  of  the 
solemn  significance  of  the 
thing  that  has  now  taken 
place.  The  Daughters  of  the  Confed- 
eracy have  presented  a memorial  of 
their  dead  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.  I hope  that  you  have 
noted  the  history  of  the  conception  of 
this  idea.  It  was  suggested  by  a Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  who  had 
himself  been  a distinguished  officer  in 
the  Union  Army.  It  was  authorized 
by  an  act  of  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  The  cornerstone  of  the  monu- 
ment was  laid  by  a President  of  the 
United  States  elevated  to  his  position 
by  the  votes  of  the  party  which  had 
chiefly  prided  itself  upon  sustaining 
the  war  for  the  Union,  and  who,  while 
Secretary  of  War,  had  himself  given 
authority  to  erect  it.  And,  now,  it  has 
fallen  to  my  lot  to  accept  in  the  name 
of  the  great  Government,  which  I am 
privileged  for  the  time  to  represent, 
this  emblem  of  a reunited  people.  I 
am  not  so  much  happy  as  proud  to 
participate  in  this  capacity  on  such  an 
occasion — proud  that  I should  repre- 
sent such  a people.  Am  I mistaken, 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  supposing 
that  nothing  of  this  sort  could  have 
occurred  in  anything  but  a democracy? 
The  people  of  a democracy  are  not 


related  to  their  rulers  as  subjects  are 
related  to  a government.  They  are 
themselves  the  sovereign  authority, 
and  as  they  are  neighbors  of  each 
other,  quickened  by  the  same  influ- 
ences and  moved  by  the  same  motives, 
they  can  understand  each  other.  They 
are  shot  through  with  some  of  the 
deepest  and  profoundest  instincts  of 
human  sympathy.  They  choose  their 
governments;  they  select  their  rulers; 


the  Congress  and  united  in  all  the  ef- 
forts of  peace  and  of  government,  and 
our  solemn  duty  is  to  see  that  each 
one  of  us  is  in  his  own  consciousness 
and  in  his  own  conduct  a replica  of 
this  great  reunited,  people.  It  is  our 
duty  and  our  privilege  to  be  like  the 
country  we  represent  and,  speaking  no 
word  of  malice,  no  word  of  criticism 
even,  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  to  lift 
the  burdens  of  mankind  in  the  future 
and  show  the  paths  of  freedom  to  all 
the  world. 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

AT  INDEPENDENCE  HALL 


PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  JULY  4,  1914 


JULY  4th  ANNIVERSARY 


R.  CHAIRMAN  and  Fellow 
I IVJ  j Citizens — We  are  assem- 

bled  to  celebrate  the  138th 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
the  United  States.  I suppose 
that  we  can  more  vividly  realize  the 
circumstances  of  that  birth  standing 
on  this  historic  spot  than  it  would  be 
possible  to  realize  them  anywhere  else. 
The  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
written  in  Philadelphia;  it  was 
adopted  in  this  historic  building  by 
which  we  stand.  I have  just  had  the 


privilege  of  sitting  in  the  chair  of  the 
great  man  who  presided  over  the  de- 
liberations of  those  who  gave  the  dec- 
laration to  the  world.  My  hand  rests 
at  this  moment  upon  the  table  upon 
which  the  declaration  was  signed.  Wo 
can  feel  that  we  are  almost  in  the 
visible  and  tangible  presence  of  a 
great  historic  transaction. 

Have  you  ever  read  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  or  attended  with 
close  comprehension  to  the  real  char- 
acter of  it  when  you  have  heard  it 


22 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


read?  If  you  have,  you  will  know 
that  it  is  not  a Fourth  of  July  ora- 
tion. The  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence was  a document  preliminary  to 
war.  It  was  a vital  piece  of  practical 
business,  not  a piece  of  rhetoric;  and 
if  you  will  pass  beyond  those  pre- 
liminary passages  which  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  quote  about  the  rights  of 
men  and  read  into  the  heart  of  the 
document  you  will  see  that  it  is  very 
express  and  detailed,  that  it  consists 
of  a series  of  definite  specifications 
concerning  actual  public  business  of 
the  day.  Not  the  business  of  our  day, 
for  the  matter  with  which  it  deals  is 
past,  but  the  business  of  the  first  revo- 
lution by  which  the  nation  was  set 
up,  the  business  of  1776.  Its  general 
statements,  its  general  declarations 
can  not  mean  anything  to  us  unless 
we  append  to  it  a similar  specific  body 
of  particulars  as  to  what  we  con- 
sider the  essential  business  of  our  own 
day. 

Liberty  does  not  consist,  my  fellow 
citizens,  in  mere  general  declarations 
of  the  rights  of  man.  It  consists  in 
the  translation  of  those  declarations 
into  definite  action.  Therefore,  stand- 
ing here  where  the  declaration  was 
adopted,  reading  its  business-like  sen- 
tences, we  ought  to  ask  ourselves 
what  there  is  in  it  for  us.  There  is 
nothing  in  it  for  us  unless  we  can 
translate  it  into  the  terms  of  our  own 
conditions  and  of  our  own  lives.  We 
must  reduce  it  to  what  the  lawyers 
call  a bill  of  particulars.  It  contains 
a bill  of  particulars,  but  the  bill  of 
particulars  of  1776.  If  we  keep  it 
alive,  we  must  fill  it  with  a bill  of 
particulars  of  the  year  1914. 

The  task  to  which  we  have  con- 
stantly to  readdress  ourselves  is  the 
task  of  proving  that  we  are  worthy  of 
the  men  who  drew  this  great  declara- 
tion and  know  what  they  would  have 
done  in  our  circumstances.  Patriot- 
ism consists  in  some  very  practical 
things — practical  in  that  they  belong 
to  the  life  of  every  day,  that  they 
W'ear  no  extraordinary  distinction 
about  them,  that  they  are  connected 
with  commonplace  duty.  The  way  to 
be  patriotic  in  America  is  not  only  to 
love  America,  but  to  love  the  duty  that 
lies  nearest  to  our  hand  and  know 
that  in  performing  it  W'e  are  serving 
our  country.  There  are  some  gentle- 
men in  Washington,  for  example,  at 
this  very  moment  who  are  showing 
themselves  very  patriotic  in  a way 
which  does  not  attract  wide  attention 
but  seems  to  belong  to  mere  everyday 
obligations.  The  members  of  the 
House  and  Senate  who  stay  in  hot 
Washington  to  maintain  a quorum  of 
the  Houses  and  transact  the  all-im- 
portant business  of  the  nation  are 
doing  an  act  of  patriotism.  I honor 
them  for  it,  and  I am  glad  to  stay 
there  and  stick  by  them  until  the 
work  is  done. 

It  is  patriotic,  also,  to  learn  what 
the  facts  of  our  national  life  are  and 
to  face  them  with  candor.  I have 
heard  a great  many  facts  stated  about 
the  present  business  condition  of  this 
country,  for  example — a great  many 
allegations  of  fact,  at  any  rate,  but 
the  allegations  do  not  tally  with  one 
another.  And  yet  I know  that  truth 
always  matches  with  truth;  and  when 
I find  some  insisting  that  everything 
is  going  wrong  and  others  insisting 
that  everything  is  going  right,  and 
when  I know  from  a wide  observation 
of  the  general  circumstances  of  the 
country,  taken  as  a whole,  that  things 
are  going  extremely  well,  I wonder 
what  those  who  are  crying  out  that 


things  are  wrong  are  trying  to  do. 
Are  they  trying  to  serve  the  country, 
or  are  they  trying  to  serve  something 
smaller  than  the  country?  Are  they 
trying  to  put  hope  into  the  hearts  of 
the  men  who  work  and  toil  every  day, 
or  are  they  trying  to  i>lan  discourage- 
ment and  despair  in  those  hearts? 
And  why  do  they  cry  that  everything 
is  wrong  and  yet  do  nothing  to  set 
it  right?  If  they  love  America  and 
anything  is  wrong  among  us,  it  is  their 
business  to  put  their  hand  with  ours 
to  the  task  of  setting  it  right.  When 
the  facts  are  known  and  acknowl- 
edged, the  duty  of  all  patriotic  men 
is  to  accept  them  in  candor  and  to 
address  themselves  hopefully  and  con- 
fidently to  the  common  counsel  which 
is  necessary  to  act  upon  them  wisely 
and  in  universal  concert. 

I have  had  some  experiences  in  the 
last  fourteen  months  which  have  not 
been  entirely  reassuring.  It  was  uni- 
versally admitted,  for  example,  my 
fellow  citizens,  that  the  banking  sys- 
tem of  this  country  needed  reorganiza- 
tion. We  set  the  best  minds  that  we 
could  find  to  the  task  of  discovering 
the  best  method  of  reorganization. 
But  we  met  with  hardly  anything  but 
criticism  from  the  bankers  of  the 
country;  we  met  with  hardly  anything 
but  resistance  from  the  majority  of 
those  at  least  who  spoke  at  all  con- 
cerning the  matter.  And  yet  so  soon 
as  that  act  was  passed  there  was  a 
universal  chorus  of  applause,  and  the 
very  men  who  had  opposed  the  meas- 
ure joined  in  that  applause.  If  it 
was  wrong  the  day  before  it  was 
passed,  why  was  it  right  the  day  after 
it  was  passed?  Where  had  been  the 
candor  of  criticism  not  only,  but  the 
concert  of  counsel,  which  makes  leg- 
islative action  vigorous  and  safe  and' 
successful  ? 

It  is  not  patriotic  to  concert  meas- 
ures against  one  another;  it  is  patri- 
otic to  concert  measures  for  one  an- 
other. 

In  one  sense  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence has  lost  its  significance. 
It  has  lost  its  significance  as  a dec- 
laration of  national  independence. 
Nobody  outside  of  America  believed 
when  it  was  uttered  that  we  could 
make  good  our  independence;  now 
nobody  anywhere  would  dare  to  doubt 
that  we  are  independent  and  can 
maintain  our  independence.  As  a dec- 
laration of  independence,  therefore,  it 
is  a mere  historic  document.  Our 
independence  is  a fact  so  stupendous 
that  it  can  be  measured  only  by  the 
size  and  energy  and  variety  and  wealth 
and  power  of  one  of  the  greatest  na- 
tions in  the  world.  But  it  is  one 
thing  to  be  independent  and  it  is  an- 
other thing  to  know  what  to  do  with 
your  independence.  It  is  one  thing  to 
come  to  your  majority  and  another 
thing  to  know  what  you  are  going  to 
do  with  your  life  and  your  energies; 
and  one  of  the  most  serious  ques- 
tions for  sober-minded  men  to  ad- 
dress themselves  to  in  the  United 
States  is  this;  What  are  we  going 
to  do  with  the  influence  and  power 
of  this  great  nation?  Are  wre  going  to 
play  the  old  role  of  using  that  power 
for  our  aggrandizement  and  material 
benefit  only?  You  know  w’hat  that 
may  mean.  It  may  upon  occasion 
mean  that  we  shall  use  it  to  make  the 
peoples  of  othe?  'nations  suffer  in  the 
way  in  which  wivsaid  it  was  intoler- 
able to  suffer  .When  we  uttered  our 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  Department  of  State  at  Wash- 
ington is  constantly  called  upon  to 
back  up  the  commercial  enterprises 
and  the  industrial  enterprises  of  the 
United  States  in  foreign  countries,  and 
it  at  one  time  went  so  far  in  that  di- 
rection that  all  its  diplomacy  came 
to  be  designated  as  “dollar  diplo- 
macy.” It  was  called  upon  to  support 
every  man  who  wanted  to  earn  any- 
thing anywhere  if  he  was  an  Ameri- 
can. But  there  ought  to  be  a limit  to 
that.  There  is  no  man  who  is  more 


interested  than  I am  in  carrying  the 
enterprise  of  American  business  men 
to  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  I was 
interested  in  it  long  before  I was  sus- 
pected of  being  a politician.  I have 
been  preaching  it  year  after  year  as 
the  great  thing  that  lay  in  the  future 
for  the  United  States,  to  show  her 
wit  and  skill  and  enterprise  and  in- 
fluence in  every  country  in  the  world. 
But  observe  the  limit  to  all  that  which 
is  laid  upon  us  perhaps  more  than 
upon  any  other  nation  in  the  world. 
We  set  this  nation  up,  at  any  rate  we 
professed  to  set  it  up*  to  vindicate  the 
rights  of  men.  We  did  not  name  any 
differences  between  one  race  and  an- 
other. We  did  not  set  up  any  barriers- 
against  any  particular  people.  We 
opened  our  gates  to  all  the  world  and 
said,  ‘ Let  all  men  who  wish  to  be 
free  come  to  us  and  they  will  be  wel- 
come.” We  said.  “This  independence 
of  ours  is  not  a selfish  thing  for  our 
own  exclusive  private  use.  It  is  for 
eveybody  to  whom  we  can  find  the 
means  of  extending  it.”  We  can  not 
with  that  oath  taken  in  our  youth, 
we  can  not  with  that  great  ideal  set 
before  us  when  we  were  a young  peo- 
ple and  numbered  only  a scant  3,000,- 
000,  take  upon  ourselves,  now  that  we 
are  100,000,000  strong,  any  other  con- 
ception of  duty  than  we  then  enter- 
tained. If  American  enterprise  in  for- 
eign countries,  particularly  in  those 
foreign  countries  which  are  not  strong 
enough  to  resist  us,  takes  the  shape 
of  imposing  upon  and  exploiting  the 
mass  of  the  people  of  that  country 
it  ought  to  be  checked  and  not  en- 
couraged. I am  willing  to  get  any- 
thing for  an  American  that  money 
and  enterprise  can  obtain  except  the 
suppression  of  the  rights  of  other  men. 

I will  not  help  any  man  buy  a power 
which  he  ought  not  to  exercise  over 
his  fellow  beings. 

You  know,  my  fellow  countrymen, 
what  a big  question  there  is  in  Mexico. 
Eighty-five  per  cent,  of  the  Mexican 
people  have  never  been  allowed  to 
have  any  genuine  participation  in  their 
own  government  or  to  exercise  any 
substantial  rights  with  regard  to  the 
very  land  they  live  upon.  All  the 
rights  that  men  most  desire  have  been 
exercised  by  the  other  15  per  cent. 
Do  you  suppose  that  that  circum- 
stance is  not  sometimes  in  my 
thought?  I know  that  the  American 
people  have  a heart  that  will  beat 
just  as  strong  for  those  millions  in 
Mexico  as  it  will  beat,  or  has  beaten, 
for  any  other  millions  elsewhere  in  the 
world,  and  that  when  once  they  con- 
ceive what  is  at  stake  in  Mexico  they 
will  know  what  ought  to  be  done  in 
Mexico.  I hear  a great  deal  said 
about  the  loss  of  property  in  Mexico 
and  the  loss  of  lives  of  foreigners, 
and  I deplore  these  things  with  all 
my  heart.  Undoubtedly,  upon  the  con- 
clusion of  the  present  disturbed  condi- 
tions in  Mexico  those  who  have  been 
unjustly  deprived  of  their  property  or 
in  any  wise  unjustly  put  upon  ought 
to  be  compensated.  Men’s  individual 
rights  have  no  doubt  been  invaded, 
and  the  invasion  of  those  rights  has 
been  attended  by  many  deplorable  cir- 
cumstances which  ought  some  time, 
in  the  proper  way,  to  be  accounted 
for.  But -back  of  it  all  is  the  struggle 
of  a people  to  come  into  its  own,  and 
while  we  look  upon  the  incidents  in 
the  foreground  let  us  not  forget  the 
great  tragic  reality  in  the  background 
which  towers  above  the  whole  picture. 

A patriotic  American  is  a man  who 
is  not  niggardly  and  selfish  in  the 
things  that  he  enjoys  that  make  for 
human  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man. 
He  wants  to  share  them  with  the 
whole  world,  and  he  is  never  so 
proud  of  the  great  flag  under  which 
he  lives  as  when  it  comes  to  mean 
to  other  people  as  well  as  to  himself 
a symbol  of  hope  and  liberty.  I 
would  be  ashamed  of  this  flag  if  it 
ever  did  anything  outside  America 


Eagle  Library-SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


23 


that  we  would  not  permit  it  to  do  in- 
side of  America. 

The  world  is  becoming  more  com- 
plicated every  day,  my  fellow  citizens. 
No  man  ought  to  be  foolish  enough 
to  think  that  he  understands  it  all. 
And,  therefore,  I am  glad  that  there 
are  some  simple  things  in  the  world. 
One  of  the  simple  things  is  principle. 
Honesty  is  a perfectly  simple  thing. 
It  is  hard  for  me  to  believe  that  in 
most  circumstances  when  a man  has  a 
choice  of  ways  he  does  not  know  which 
is  the  right  way  and  which  is  the 
wrong  way.  No  man  who  has  chosen 
the  wrong  way  ought  even  to  come 
into  Independence  Square;  it  is  holy 
ground  which  he  ought  not  to  tread 
upon.  He  ought  not  to  come  where 
immortal  voices  have  uttered  the  great 
sentences  of  such  a document  as  this 
Declaration  of  Independence  upon 
which  rests  the  liberty  of  a whole 
nation. 

And  sq  I say  that  it  is  patriotic 
sometimes  to  prefer  the  honor  of  the 
country  to  its  material  interest.  Would 
you  rather  be  deemed  by  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  world  incapable  of  keep- 
ing your  treaty  obligations  in  order 
that  you  might  have  free  tolls  for 
American  ships?  The  treaty  under 
which  we  gave  up  that  right  may  have 
been  a mistaken  treaty,  but  there  was 
no  mistake  about  its  meaning. 

When  I have  made  a promise  as  a 
man  I try  to  keep  it,  and  I know  of 
no  other  rule  permissible  to  a nation. 
The  most  distinguished  nation  in  the 
world  is  the  nation  that  can  and  will 
keep  its  promises  even  to  its  own  hurt. 
And  I want  to  say  parenthetically  that 
I do  not  think  anybody  was  hurt.  I 
can  not  be  enthusiastic  for  subsidies  to 
a monopoly,  but  let  those  who  are 
enthusiastic  for  subsidies  ask  them- 
selves whether  they  prefer  subsidies  to 
unsullied  honor. 

The  most  patriotic  man,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  is  sometimes  the  man  who 
goes  in  the  direction  that  he  thinks 
right  even  when  he  sees  half  the 
world  against  him.  It  is  the  dictate  of 
patriotism  to  sacrifice  yourself  if  you 
think  that  that  is  the  path  of  honor 
and  of  duty.  Do  not  blame  others  if 
they  do  not  agree  with  you.  Do  not 
die  with  bitterness  in  yOur  heart  be- 
cause you  did  not  convivnce  the  rest 
of  the  world,  but  die  happy  because 
you  believe  that  you  tried  to  serve 
your  country  by  not  selling  your  soul. 
Those  were  grim  days,  the  days  of 
1776.  Those  gentlemen  did  not  attach 
their  names  to  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence on  this  table  expecting  a 
holiday  on  the  next  day,  and  that  4th 
of  July  was  not  itself  a holiday.  They 
attached  their  signatures  to  that  sig- 
nificant document  knowing  that  if  they 
failed  it  was  certain  that  every  one  of 
them  would  hang  for  the  failure.  They 
were  committing  treason  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  liberty  of  3,000,000  people  in 
America.  All  the  rest  of  the  world 
was  against  them  and  smiled  with  cyn- 
ical incredulity  at  the  audacious  un- 
dertaking. Do  you  think  that  if  they 
could  see  this  great  Nation  now  they 
would  regret  anything  that  they  then 
did  to  draw  the  gaze  of  a hostile  world  ' 
upon  them?  Every  idea  must  be 
started  by  somebody,  and  it  is  a lonely 
thing  to  start  anything.  Yet  if  it  is  in 
you,  you  must  start  it  if  .you  have  a 
man’s  blood  in  you  and  if  you  love  the 
country  that  you  profess  to  be  working 
for. 

I am  sometimes  very  much  inter- 
ested when  I see  gentlemen  supposing 
that  popularity  is  the  way  to  success 
in  America.  The  way  to  success  in 
this  great  country,  with  its  fair  judg- 
ments, is  to  show  that  you  are  not 
afraid  of  anybody  except  God  and  his 
final  verdict.  If  I did  not  believe  that, 

I would  not  believe  in  democracy.  If 
I did  not  believe  that,  I would  not  be- 
lieve that  people  can  govern  them- 
selves. If  I did  not  believe  that  the 
moral  judgment  would  be  the  last 


judgment,  the  final  judgment,  in  the 
minds  of  men  as  well  as  the  tribunal 
of  God,  I could  not  believe  in  popular 
government.  But  I do  believe  these 
things,  and,  therefore,  I earnestly  be- 
lieve in  the  democracy  not  only  of 
America  but  of  every  awakened  people 
that  wishes  and  intends  to  govern  and 
control  its  own  affairs. 

It  is  very  inspiring,  my  friends,  to 
come  to  this  that  may  be  called  the 
original  fountain  of  independence  and 
liberty  in  America  and  here  drink 
draughts  of  patriotic  feeling  which 
seem  to  renew  the  very  blood  in  one's 
veins.  Down  in  Washington  some- 
times when  the  days  are  hot  and  the 
business  presses  intolerably  and  there 
are  so  many  things  to  do  that  it  does 
not  seem  possible  to  do  anything  in 
the  way  it  ought  to  be  done,  it  is  al- 
ways possible  to  lift  one’s  thought 
above  the  task  of  the  moment  and,  as 
it  were,  to  realize  that  great  thing  of 
which  we  are  all  parts,  the  great  body 
of  American  feeling  and  American 
principle.  No  man  could  do  the  work 
that  has  to  be  done  in  Washington  if 
he  allowed  himself  to  be  separated 
from  that  body  of  principle.  He  must 
make  himself  feel  that  he  is  a part  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  that 
he  is  trying  to  think  not  only  for  them, 
but  with  them,  and  then  he  can  not 
feel  lonely.  He  not  only  can  not  feel 


lonely  but  he  can  not  feel  afraid  of 
anything. 

My  dream  is  that  as  the  years  go 
on  and  the  world  knows  more  and 
more  of  America  it  will  also  drink  at 
these  fountains  of  youth  and  renewal; 
that  it  also  will  turn  to  America  for 
those  moral  inspirations  which  lie  at 
the  basis  of  all  freedom;  that  the 
world  will  never  fear  America  unless  it 
feels  that  it  is  engaged  in  some  enter- 
prise which  is  inconsistent  with  the 
rights  of  humanity;  and  that  America 
will  come  into  the  full  light  of  the 
day  when  all  shall  know  that  she  puts 
human  rights  above  all  other  rights 
and  that  her  flag  is  the  flag  not  only 
of  America  but  of  humanity. 

What  other  great  people  has  devoted 
Itself  to  this  exalted  ideal?  To  what 
other  nation  in  the  world  can  all  eyes 
look  for  an  instant  sympathy  that 
thrills  the  whole  body  politic  when 
men  anywhere  are  fighting  for  their 
rights?  I do  not  know  that  there  will 
ever  be  a declaration  of  independence 
and  of  grievances  for  mankind,  but  I 
believe  that  if  any  such  document  is 
ever  drawn  it  will  be  drawn  in  the 
spirit  of  the  American  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  that  America  has 
lifted  high  the  light  which  will  shine 
unto  all  generations  and  guide  the  feet 
of  mankind  to  the  goal  of  justice  and 
liberty  and  peace. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

DELIVERED  AT  A JOINT  SESSION  OF  THE 
TWO  HOUSES  OF  CONGRESS 

SEPTEMBER  4,  1914 


WAR  EMERGENCY  TAX 


ENTLEMEN  of  the  Congress — 
I come  to  you  today  to  dis- 
charge a duty  which  I wish 
with  all  my  heart  I might 
have  been  spared;  but  it  is 
a very  clear  duty,  and  therefore  I 
perform  it  without  hesitation  or  apol- 
ogy. I come  to  ask  very  earnestly 
that  additional  revenue  be  provided 
for  the  Government. 

During  the  month  of  August  there 
was,  as  compared  with  the  corre- 
sponding month  of  last  year,  a falling 
off  of  $10,629,538  in  the  revenues  col- 
lected from  customs.  A continuation 
of  this  decrease  in  the  same  propor- 
tion throughout  the  current  fiscal  year 
would  probably  mean  a loss  of  cus- 
toms revenues  of  from  sixty  to  one 
hundred  millions.  I need  not  tell  you 
to  what  this  falling  off  is  due.  It  is 
due,  in  chief  part  not  to  the  reduc- 
tions recently  made  in  the  customs 
duties,  but  to  the  great  decrease  in 
importations;  and  that  is  due  to  the 
extraordinary  extent  of  the  industrial 
area  affected  by  the  present  war  in 
Europe.  Conditions  have  arisen  which 
no  man  foresaw;  they  affect  the  whole 
world  of  commerce  and  economic 
production;  and  they  must  be  faced 
and  dealt  with. 

It  would  be  very  unwise  to  post- 
pone dealing  with  them.  Delay  in 
such  a matter  and  in  the  particular 
circumstances  in  which  we  now  find 
ourselves  as  a nation  might  involve 
consequences  of  the  most  embarrass- 


| ing  and  deplorable  sort,  for  which 
I,  for  one,  would  not  care  to  be  re- 
sponsible. It  would  be  very  dangerous 
in  the  present  circumstances  to 
create  a moment’s  doubt  as  to  the 
strength  and  sufficiency  of  the  Treas- 
ury of  the  United  States,  its  ability  to 
assist,  to  steady,  and  sustain  the  finan- 
cial operations  of  the  country’s  busi- 
ness. If  the  Treasury  is  known,  or 
even  thought,  to  be  weak,  where  will 
be  our  peace  of  mind?  The  whole  in- 
dustrial activity  of  the  country  would 
be  chilled  and  demoralized.  Just  now 
the  peculiarly  difficult  financial  prob- 
lems of  the  moment  are  being  suc- 
cessfully dealt  with,  with  great  self- 
possession  and  good  sense  and  very 
sound  judgment;  but  they  are  only  In 
process  of  being  worked  out.  If  the 
process  of  solution  is  to  be  completed, 
no  one  must  be  given  reason  to  doubt 
the  solidity  and  adequacy  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  Government  which 
stands  behind  the  whole  method  by 
which  our  difficulties  are  being  met 
and  handled. 

The  Treasury  itself  could  get  along 
for  a considerable  period,  no  doubt, 
without  immediate  resort  to  new 
sources  of  taxation.  But  at  what  cost 
to  the  business  of  the  community? 
Approximately  $75,000,000,  a large 
Dart  of  the  present  Treasury  balance, 
is  now  on  deposit  with  national  banks 
distributed  throughout  the  country. 
It  is  deposited,  of  course,  on  call.  I 
need  not  point  out  to  you  what  the 
probable  consequences  of  InconveA 
ience  and  distress  and  confusion 
would  be  if  the  diminishing  income 
of  the  Treasury  should  make  it  neces- 
sary rapidly  to  withdraw  these  de- 
posits. And  yet  without  additional 
revenue  that  plainly  might  become 
necessary,  and  the  time  when  It  be- 


24 


Eagle  Library-SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


came  necessary  could  not  be  con- 
trolled or  determined  by  the  conven- 
ience of  the  business  of  the  country. 
It  would  have  to  be  determined  by 
the  operations  and  necessities  of  the 
Treasury  itself.  Such  risks  are  not 
necessary  and  ought  not  to  be  run. 
We  cannot  too  scrupulously  or  ca  e- 
fully  safeguard  a financial  situation 
which  is  at  best,  while  war  continues 
in  Europe,  difficult  and  abnormal. 
Hesitation  and  delay  are  the  worst 
forms  of  bad  policy  under  such  con- 
ditions. 

And  we  ought  not  to  borrow.  We 
ought  to  resort  to  taxation,  however 
we  may  regret  the  necessity  of  putting 
additional  temporary  burdens  on  our 
people.  To  sell  bonds  would  be  to 
make  a most  untimely  and  unjustifia- 
ble demand  on  the  money  market; 
untimely,  because  this  is  manifestly 
not  the  time  to  withdraw  working 
capital  from  other  uses  to  pay  the 
Government's  bills;  unjustifiable,  be- 
cause unnecessary.  The  country  is 
able  to  pay  any  just  and  reasonable 
taxes  without  distress.  And  to  every 
other  form  of  borrowing,  whether  for 
long  periods  or  for  short,  there  is  the 
same  objection.  These  are  not  the  cir- 
cumstances, this  is  at  this  particular 
moment  and  in  this  particular  exi- 
gency not  the  market,  to  borrow  large 
sums  of  money.  What  we  are  seeking 
is  to  ease  and  assist  every  financial 
transaction,  not  to  add  a single  addi- 
tional embarrassment  to  the  situation. 
The  people  of  this  country  are  both 
intelligent  and  profoundly  patriotic. 
They  are  ready  to  meet  the  present 
conditions  in  the  right  way  and  to 
support  the  Government  with  gener- 


The  White  House, 
Washington,  October  17,  1914. 

’ '%  Y Dear  Mr.  Underwood  — I 

Iwf  I cannot  let  this  session  of 
i— Congress  close  without  ex- 
CagffijlJ  pressing  my  warm  admira- 
tion for  the  fidelity  and  in- 
telligence v»1th  which  the  programme 
outlined  in  April  and  December  of  last 
year  has  been  carried  out,  and  my 
feeling  that  the  people  of  the  country 
have  been  served  by  the  members  of 
this  Congress  as  they  have  seldom,  if 
ever,  Wn  served  before.  The  pro- 
gru/ame  was  a great  one,  and  it  is  a 
luatter  of  deep  satisfaction  to  think  of 
the  way  in  which  it  has  been  handled. 

It  had  several  distinct  parts  and 
many  items,  but,  after  all,  a single 
purpose  — namely,  to  destroy  private 
control  and  set  business  free.  That 
purpose  was  manifest  enough  in  the 
case  of  the  tariff  and  in  the  legisla- 
tion affecting  trusts;  but,  though  per- 
haps less  evident  upon  the  surface 
there,  it  lay  at  the  very  heart  of  the 
currency  bill,  too.  May  I not  add, 
Ven  though  it  lies  outside  the  field 
jt  legislation,  that  that,  and  that 
chiefly,  has  been  the  object  of  the 


ous  self-denial.  They  know  and  un- 
derstand, and  will  be  intolerant  only 
of  those  who  dodge  responsibility  or 
are  not  frank  with  them. 

The  occasion  is  not  of  our  own 
making.  We  had  no  part  in  making 
it.  But  it  is  here.  It  affects  us  as  di- 
rectly and  palpably  almost  as  if  we 
were  participants  in  the  circum- 
stances which  gave  rise  to  it.  We 
must  accept  the  inevitable  with  calm 
judgment  and  unruffled  spirits,  like 
men  accustomed  to  deal  with  the  un- 
evpected  habituated  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  masters  of  their  own  af- 
fairs and  their  own  fortunes.  We  shall 
pay  the  bill  though  we  did  not  delib- 
erately incur  it. 

In  order  to  meet  every  demand 
upon  the  Treasury  without  delay  or 
peradventure  and  in  order  to  keep 
the  Treasury  strong,  unquestionably 
strong,  and  strong  throughout  the 
present  anxieties,  I respectfully  urge 
that  an  additional  revenue  of  $100,- 
000,000  be  raised  through  internal 
taxes  devised  in  your  wisdom  to  meet 
the  emergency.  The  only  suggestion 
I take  the  liberty  of  making  is  that  i 
such  sources  of  revenue  be  chosen  as 
will  begin  to  yield  at  once  and  yield 
with  a certain  and  constant  flow. 

I cannot  close  without  expressing 
the  confidence  with  which  I approach 
a Congress,  with  regard  to  this  or  any 
other  matter,  which  has  shown  so 
untiring  a devotion  to  public  duty, 
which  has  responded  to  the  needs  of 
the  Nation  throughout  a long  season 
despite  inevitable  fatigue  and  per- 
sonal sacrifice,  and  so  large  a propor- 
tion of  whose  members  have  devoted 
their  whole  time  and  energy  to  the 
business  of  the  country. 


foreign  policy  of  the  Government  dur- 
ing the  last  eighteen  months? 

Private  control  had  shown  its  sinis- 
ter face  on  every  hand  in  America, 
had  shown  it  for  a long  time,  and 
sometimes  very  brazenly,  in  the  trusts 
and  in  a virtual  domination  of  credit 
by  small  groups  of  men.  The  safest 
hiding  place  and  covert  of  such  con- 
trol was  in  the  tariff.  There  it  for  a 
long  time  hid  very  shrewdly.  The  tariff 
was  a very  complicated  matter;  none 
but  experts  thoroughly  understood  its 
schedules.  Many  of  the  schedules  were 
framed  to  afford  particular  advantages 
to  special  groups  of  manufacturers  and 
investors.  That  was  the  soil  in  which 
trade  combinations  and  combinations 
of  manufacturers  most  readily  grew, 
and  most  rankly.  High  prices  did  not 
spring  directly  out  of  the  tariff.  They 
sprang  out  of  the  suppression  of  do- 
mestic, no  less  than  of  foreign,  com- 
petition by  means  of  combinations  and 
trade  agreements  which  could  be  much 
more  easily  contrived  and  maintained 
under  the  protection  of  a high  tariff 
than  without  it.  The  European  war 
came  before  the  withdrawal  of  this 
much-coveted  opportunity  for  monop- 
oly could  show  its  full  effects  and  ac- ! 


tive  competition  bring  prices  to  their 
normal  level  again;  but  it  is  clear 
enough  already  that  the  reduction  of 
the  tariff,  the  simplification  of  its 
schedules  so  as  to  cut  away  the  jungle 
in  which  secret  agencies  had  so  long 
lurked,  the  correction  of  its  inequali- 
ties, and  its  thorough  recasting  with 
the  single  honest  object  of  revenue, 
were  an  indispensable  first  step  to  re- 
establishing competition. 

The  present  Congress  has  taken  that 
step  with  courage,  sincerity  and  effec- 
tiveness. The  lobby  by  which  some  of 
the  worst  features  of  the  old  tariff  had 
been  maintained  was  driven  away  by 
the  mere  pitiless  turning  on  of  the 
light.  The  principle  was  adopted  that 
each  duty  levied  was  to  be  tested  by 
the  inquiry  whether  it  was  put  at  such 
a figure  and  levied  in  such  a manner 
as  to  provoke  competition.  The  soil 
in  which  combinations  had  grown  was 
removed  lest  some  of  the  seeds  of  mo- 
nopoly might  be  found  to  remain  in 
it.  The  thing  had  needed  to  be  done 
for  a long  time,  but  nobody  had  ven- 
tured before  to  undertake  it  in  system- 
atic fashion. 

The  panic  that  the  friends  of  privi- 
lege had  predicted  did  not  follow.  Busi- 
ness has  already  adjusted  itself  to  the 
new  conditions  with  singular  ease  and 
elasticity,  because  the  new  conditions 
are  in  fact  more  normal  than  the  old. 
The  revenue  lost  by  the  import  duties 
was  replaced  by  an  income  tax  which 
in  part  shifted  the  burden  of  taxation 
from  the  shoulders  of  every  consumer 
in  the  country,  great  or  small,  to 
shoulders  more  certainly  able  to 
bear  it. 

We  had  time  to  learn  from  the  ac- 
tual administration  of  the  law  that  the 
revenues  from  the  double  change 
would  not  have  been  abundant  had  it 
not  been  for  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war  in  Europe,  which  affects  almost 
every  route  of  trade  and  every  market 
in  the  world  outside  of  the  United 
States.  Until  the  war  ends  and  until 
its  effects  upon  manufacturers  and 
commerce  have  been  corrected,  we 
shall  have  to  impose  additional 
taxes  to  make  up  for  the  loss  of 
such  part  of  our  import  duties  as  the 
war  cuts  off  by  cutting  off  the  imports 
themselves — a veritable  war  tax, 
though  we  are  not  at  war;  for  war, 
and  only  war,  is  the  cause  of  it. 

It  is  fortunate  that  the  reduction  of 
the  duties  came  first.  The  import 
duties  collected  under  the  old  tariff 
constituted  a much  larger  proportion 
of  the  whole  revenue  of  the  Govern- 
ment than  do  the  duties  under  the 
new.  A still  larger  proportion  of  the 
revenue  would  have  been  cut  off  by 
the  war  had  the  old  taxes  stood,  and  a 
larger  wrar  tax  would  have  been  neces- 
sary as  a consequence.  No  miscal- 
culation, no  lack  of  foresight,  has  cre- 
ated the  necessity  for  the  taxes,  but 
only  a great  catastrophe  world-wida 
in  its  operation  and  effects. 

With  similar  purpose  and  in  a like 
temper  the  Congress  has  sought,  in 
the  Trade  Commission  bill  and  in  the 
Clayton  bill,  to  make  men  in  a small 
way  of  business  as  free  to  succeed  as 
men  in  a big  way,  and  to  kill  monop- 
oly in  the  seed.  Before  these  bills 
were  passed  the  law  was  already  clear 


LETTER  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

TO  THE 

Hon.  OSCAR  UNDERWOOD 

OF  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  REVIEWING  LEGISLATION 

OCTOBER  17,  1914 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


25 


enough  that  monopolies  once  formed 
were  illegal  and  could  be  dissolved  by 
direct  process  of  law  and  those  who 
had  created  them  punished  as  for 
crime.  But  there  was  no  law  to  check 
the  process  by  which  monopoly  was 
built  up  until  the  tree  was  full  grown 
and  its  fruit  developed,  or,  at  any 
rate,  until  the  full  opportunity  for 
monopoly  had  been  created.  With  this 
new  legislation  there  is  clear  and  suffi- 
cient law  to  check  and  destroy  the 
noxious  growth  in  its  infancy.  Mo- 
nopolies are  built  up  by  unfair  meth- 
ods of  competition,  and  the  new  Trade 
Commission  has  power  to  forbid  and 
prevent  unfair  competition,  whether 
upon  a big  scale  or  upon  a little; 
whether  just  begun  or  grown  old  and 
formidable.  Monopoly  is  created  also 
by  putting  the  same  men  in  charge 
of  a variety  of  business  enterprises, 
whether  apparently  related  or  unre- 
lated to  one  another,  by  means  of  in- 
terlocking directorates.  That  the 
Clayton  bill  now  in  large  measure  pre- 
vents. Each  enterprise  must  depend 
upon  its  own  initiative  and  effective- 
ness for  success,  and  upon  the  intelli- 
gence and  business  energy  of  the  men 
who  officer  it.  And  so  all  along  the 
line:  Monopoly  is  to  be  cut  off  at 

the  roots. 

Incidentally,  Justice  has  been  done 
the  laborer.  His  labor  is  no  longer 
to  be  treated  as  if  it  were  merely  an 
inanimate  object  of  commerce  discon- 
nected from  the  fortunes  and  happi- 
ness of  a living  human  being,  to  be 
dealt  with  as  an  object  of  sale  and 
barter.  But  that,  great  as  it  is,  is 
hardly  more  than  the  natural  and  in- 
evitable corollary  of  a law  whose  ob- 
ject is  individual  freedom  and  initia- 
tive as  against  any  kind  of  private 
domination. 

The  accomplishment  of  this  legisla- 
tion seems  to  me  a singularly  sig- 
nificant thing.  If  our  party  were  to 
be  called  upon  to  name  the  particular 
point  of  principle  in  which  it  differs 
from  its  opponents  most  sharply  and 
in  which  it  feels  itself  most  definitely 
sustained  by  experience,  we  should  no 
doubt  say  that  it  was  this:  That  we 

would  have  no  dealings  with  monop- 
oly, but  reject  it  altogether;  while  our 
opponents  were  ready  to  adopt  it  into 
the  realm  of  law,  and  seek  merely  to 
regulate  it  and  moderate  it  in'  its  op- 
eration. It  is  our  purpose  to  destroy 
monopoly  and  maintain  competition  as 
the  only  effectual  instrument  of  busi- 
ness liberty. 

We  have  seen  the  nature  and  the 
power  of  monopoly  exhibited.  We 
know  that  it  is  more  apt  to  control 
government,  dictate  legislation,  and 
dominate  executives  and  courts.  We 
feel  that  our  people  are  safe  only  in 
the  fields  of  free  individual  endeavor 
where  American  genius  and  initiative 
are  not  guided  by  a few  men  as  in 
recent  years,  but  made  rich  by  the 
activities  of  a multitude,  as  in  days 
now  almost  forgotten.  We  will  not 
consent  that  an  ungovernable  giant 
should  be  reared  to  full  stature  in 
the  very  household  of  the  Govern- 
ment itself. 

In  like  manner  by  the  currency  bill 
we  have  created  a democracy  of  credit 
such  as  has  never  existed  in  this  coun- 
try before.  For  a generation  or  more 


we  have  known  and  admitted  that  we 
had  the  worst  banking  and  currency 
system  in  the  world,  because  the  vol- 
ume of  our  currency  was  wholly  in- 
elastic; that  is,  because  there  was 
more  than  enough  at  certain  seasons 
to  meet  the  demands  of  commerce  and 
credit,  and  at  other  times  far  too  little; 
that  we  could  not  lessen  the  volume 
when  he  needed  less  nor  increase  it 
when  we  needed  more.  Everybody 
talked  about  the  absurd  system  and 
its  quite  unnecessary  embarrassments, 
sure  to  produce  periodic  panics;  and 
everybody  said  that  it  ought  to  be 
changed  and  changed  very  radically; 
but  nobody  took  effective  steps  to 
change  it  until  the  present  Congress 
addressed  itself  to  the  task  with  genu- 
ine resolution  and  an  intelligence 
which  expressed  itself  in  definite  ac- 
tion. And  now  the  thing  is  done. 

Let  bankers  explain  the  technical 
features  of  the  new  system.  Suffice 
it  here  to  say  that  it  provides  a 
currency  which  expands  as  it  is 
needed,  and  contracts  when  it  is  not 
needed;  a currency  which  comes  into 
existence  in  response  to  the  call  of 
every  man  who  can  show  a going  busi- 
ness and  a concrete  basis  for  extending 
credit  to  him.  however  obscure  or 
prominent  he  may  be,  however  big  or 
little  his  business  transactions. 

More  than  that,  the  power  to  direct 
this  system  of  credits  is  put  into  the 
hands  of  a public  board  of  disinter- 
ested officers  of  the  Government  itself 
who  can  make  no  money  out  of  any- 
thing they  do  in  connection  with  it. 
No  group  of  bankers  anywhere  can  get 
control;  no  one  part  of  the  country 
can  concentrate  the  advantages  and 
conveniences  of  the  system  upon  itself 
for  its  own  selfish  advantage.  The 
board  can  oblige  the  banks  of  one 
region  to  go  to  the  assistance  of  the 
banks  of  another.  The  whole  re- 
sources of  the  country  are  mobilized, 
to  be  employed  where  they  are  most 
needed.  I think  we  are  justified  in 
speaking  of  this  as  a democracy  of 
credit.  Credit  is  at  the  disposal  of 
every  man  who  can  show  energy  and 
assets.  Each  region  of  the  country 
is  set  to  study  its  own  needs  and  op- 
portunities and  the  whole  country 
6tands  by  to  assist.  It  is  self-govern- 
ment as  well  as  democracy. 

I understand  why  it  was  not  pos- 
sible at  this  session  to  mature  legis- 
lation intended  specially  for  the  de- 
velopment of  a system  for  handling 
rural,  or  rather,  agricultural  credits; 
but  the  Federal  Reserve  Act  itself  fa- 
cilitates and  enlarges  agricultural 
credit  in  an  extraordinary  degree.  The 
farmer  is  as  much  a partner  in  the 
new  democracy  of  credit  as  the  mer- 
chant or  manufacturer.  Indeed,  spe- 
cial and  very  liberal  provision  is  made 
for  his  need,  as  will  speedily  appear 
when  the  system  has  been  a little 
while  in  operation.  His  assets  are  as 
available  as  any  other  man’s,  and 
for  credits  of  a longer  term. 

There  have  been  many  other  meas- 
ures passed  of  extraordinary  import- 
ance, for  the  session  has  been  singu- 
larly rich  in  thoughtful  and  construc- 
tive legislation;  but  I have  mentioned 
the  chief  acts  for  which  this  Congress 
will  be  remembered  as  very  notable, 
indeed.  I did  not  mean  when  I be- 
gan to  write  to  make  this  letter  so 
long,  and  even  to  mention  the  other 
legislation  that  is  worthy  of  high 
praise  would  extend  it  to  an  inordinate 
length.  My  purpose  in  writing  was 
merely  to  express  my  own  admiration 
for  the  industry  and  the  leadership, 
as  well  as  the  wisdom  and  constructive 
skill,  which  has  accomplished  all  these 
things. 

I wish  I could  speak  by  name  of  the 


many  men  who  have  so  honorably 
shared  in  these  distinguished  labors. 
I doubt  if  there  has  ever  been  a finer 
exhibition  of  teamwork  or  of  unhesi- 
tating devotion  to  the  fulfillment  of 
party  pledges — and  yet  the  best  of  it 
is  that  the  great  measures  passed  have 
shown,  I venture  to  say,  no  partisan 
bias,  but  only  a spirit  of  serious  states- 
manship. I am  proud  to  have  been 
associated  with  such  men,  working  in 
such  spirit  through  so  many  months 
of  unremitted  labor  at  trying  tasks  of 
counsel.  It  has  been  a privilege  to 
have  a share  in  such  labors.  I wish 
I could  express  to  every  one  of  the 
members  who  have  thus  cooperated 
together  my  personal  appreciation  of 
what  he  has  helped  to  do.  This  letter 
may,  I hope,  serve  in  some  sort  as  a 
substitute  for  that. 

I look  forward  with  confidence  to 
the  elections.  The  voters  of  the 
United  States  have  never  failed  to  re- 
ward real  service.  They  have  never 
failed  to  sustain  a Congress  and  ad- 
ministration that  were  seeking,  as  this 
Congress  and,  I believe,  this  adminis- 
tration, have  sought,  to  render  them 
a permanent  and  disinterested  benefit 
in  the  shape  of  reformed  and  rectified 
laws.  They  know  that,  extraordinary 
as  the  record  is  which  I have  recited, 
our  task  is  not  done;  that  a great  work 
of  constructive  development  remains 
to  be  accomplished,  in  building  up  our 
merchant  marine,  for  instance,  and  in 
the  completion  of  a great  programme 
for  the  conservation  of  our  natural 
resources  and  the  development  of  the 
water  power  of  the  country — a pro- 
gramme which  has  at  this  session  al- 
ready been  carried  several  steps 
toward  consummation.  They  know, 
too,  that  without  a Congress  in  close 
sympathy  with  the  administration  a 
whole  scheme  of  peace  and  honor  and 
disinterested  service  to  the  world,  of 
which  they  have  approved,  can  not 
be  brought  to  its  full  realization.  I 
would  like  to  go  into  the  district  of 
every  member  of  Congress  who  has 
sustained  and  advanced  the  plans  of 
the  party  and  speak  out  my  advocacy 
of  his  claim  for  reelection.  But,  of 
course,  I can  not  do  that;  and  with 
so  clear  a record  no  member  of  Con- 
gress needs  a spokesman.  What  he 
has  done  speaks  for  itself.  If  it  be  a 
mere  question  of  political  fortunes,  I 
believe  the  immediate  future  of  the 
party  to  be  as  certain  as  the  past  is 
secure. 

The  Democratic  Party  is  now  in  fact 
the  only  instrument  ready  to  the  coun- 
try’s hand  by  which  anything  can  be 
accomplished.  It  is  united,  as  the  Re- 
publican Party  is  not;  it  is  strong  and 
full  of  the  zest  of  sober  achievement, 
and  has  been  rendered  confident  by 
carrying  out  a great  constructive  pro- 
gramme such  as  no  other  party  has 
attempted;  it  is  absolutely  free  from 
the  entangling  alliances  which  made 
the  Republican  Party,  even  before  its 
rupture,  utterly  unserviceable  as  an 
instrument  of  reform;  its  thought,  its 
ambition,  its  plans  are  of  the  vital 
present  and  the  hopeful  future.  A 
practical  Nation  is  not  likely  to  reject 
such  a team,  full  of  the  spirit  of  public 
service,  and  substitute,  in  the  midst 
of  great  tasks,  either  a party  upon 
which  a deep  demoralization  r-.-is 
fallen  or  a party  which  has  not  gro"wn 
to  the  stature  that  would  warrant  its 
assuming  the  responsible  burdens  of 
state.  Every  thoughtful  man  sees  that 
a change  of  parties  made  just  now 
would  set  the  clock  back,  not  forward. 

I have  a very  complete  and  very  con- 
fident belief  in  the  practical  sagacity 
of  the  American  people. 

With  sincere  regard  and  admiration, 

Faithfully,  yours, 

WOODROW  WILS#N. 

Hon.  Oscar  Underwood,  House  of 

Representatives,  Washington,  D.  O. 


26 


Eagle  Library-SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


BEFORE  THE 


AMERICAN  BAR  ASSOCIATION 

CONTINENTAL  HALL,  OCTOBER  20,  1914 


MR.  PRESIDENT,  Gentlemen 
of  the  American  Bar  Associ- 
ation— I am  very  deeply 

gratified  by  the  greeting 

that  your  president  has 
given  me  and  by  your  response  to  it. 
My  only  strength  lies  in  your  confi- 
dence. 

We  stand  now  in  a peculiar  case. 
Our  first  thought,  I suppose,  as  law- 
yers, is  of  international  law,  of  those 
bonds  of  right  and  principle  which 
draw  the  nations  together  and  hold 
the  community  of  the  world  to  some 
standards  of  action.  We  know  that 
we  see  in  international  law,  as  it  were, 
the  moral  processes  by  which  law  it- 
self came  into  existence.  I know  that 
as  a lawyer  I have  myself  at  times 
felt  that  there  was  no  real  compari- 
son between  the  law  of  a nation  and 
the  law  of  nations,  because  the  latter 
lacked  the  sancton  that  gave  the  for- 
mer strength  and  validity.  And  yet, 
if  you  look  into  the  matter  more  close- 
ly, you  will  find  that  the  two  have 
the  same  foundations  and  that  those 
foundations  are  more  evident  and  con- 
spicuous in  our  day  than  they  have 
ever  been  before. 

The  opinion  of  the  world  is  the  mis- 
tress of  the  world;  and  the  processes 
of  international  law  are  the  slow  proc- 
esses by  which  opinion  works  its  will. 
WThat  impresses  me  is  the  constant 
thought  that  that  is  the  tribunal  at 
the  bar  of  which  we  all  sit.  I would 
call  your  attention,  incidentally,  to 
the  circumstances  that  it  does  not  ob- 


to change  law  is  by  statute?  The 
changing  pf  law  by  statute  seems  to 
me  like  mending  a garment  with  a 
patch;  whereas,  law  should  grow  by 
the  life  that  is  in  it,  not  by  the  life 
that  is  outside  of  it. 

I once  said  to  a lawyer  with  whom 
I was  discussing  some  question  of 
precedent,  and  in  whose  presence  I 
was  venturing  to  doubt  the  rational 
validity,  at  any  rate,  of  the  particular 
precedents  he  cited,  “After  all,  isn’t 
our  object  justice?”  And  he  said, 
“God  forbid!  We  should  be  very  much 
confused  if  we  made  that  our  stand- 
ard. Our  standard  is  to  find  out  what 
the  rule  has  been  and  how  the  rule 
that  has  been  applies' to  the  case  that 
is.”  I should  hate  to  think  that  the 
law  was  based  entirely  upon  “has 
beens.”  I should  hate  to  think  that  the 
law  did  not  derive  its  impulse  from 
looking  forward  rather  than  from 
looking  backward,  or,  rather,  that  it 
did  not  derive  its  instruction  from 
looking  about  and  seeing  what  the 
circumstances  of  man  actually  are 
and  what  the  impulses  of  justice  nec- 
essarily are. 

Understand  me,  gentlemen,  I am 
not  venturing  in  this  presence  to  im- 
peach the  law.  For  the  present,  by 
the  force  of  circumstances,  I am  in 
part  the  embodiment  of  the  law  and  it 
would  be  very  awkward  to  disavow 
myself.  But  I do  wish  to  make  this 


intimation,  that  in  this  time  of  world 
change,  in  this  time  when  we  are 
going  to  find  out  just  how  in  what 
particulars,  and  to  what  extent  the 
real  facts  of  human  life  and  the  real 
moral  judgments  of  mankind  prevail. 
It  is  worth  while  looking  inside  our 
municipal  law  and  seeing  whether 
the  judgments  of  the  law  are  made 
square  with  the  moral  judgments  of 
mankind.  For  I believe  that  we  are 
custodians,  not  of  commands,  but  of 
a spirit.  We  are  custodians  of  the 
spirit  of  righteousness,  of  the  spirit 
of  equal-handed  justice,  of  the  spirit 
of  hope  which  believes  in  the  per- 
fectibility of  the  law  with  the  perfec- 
tibility of  human  life  itself. 

Public  life,  like  private  life,  would 
be  very  dull  and  dry  if  it  were  not  for 
this  belief  in  the  essential  beauty  of 
the  human  spirit  and  the  belief  that 
the  human  spirit  could  be  translated 
into  action  and  into  ordinance.  Not  en- 
tire. You  can  not  go  any  faster  than 
you  can  advance  the  average  moral 
judgments  of  the  mass,  but  you  can 
go  at  least  as  fast  as  that,  and  you 
can  see  to  it  that  you  do  not  lag  be- 
hind the  average  moral  judgments  of 
the  mass.  I have  in  my  life  dealt  with 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and 
I have  found  that  the  flame  of  moral 
judgment  burned  just  as  bright  in  the 
man  of  humble  life  and  limited  expe- 
rience as  in  the  scholar  and  the  man 
of  affairs.  And  I would  like  his  voice 
always  to  be  heard,  not  as  a witness, 
not  as  speaking  in  his  own  case,  but 
as  if  he  were  the  voice  of  men  in  gen- 
eral, in  our  courts  of  justice,  as  well 
as  the  voice  of  the  lawyers,  remember- 
ing what  the  law  has  been.  My  hope 
is  that,  being  stirred  to  the  depths  *"F 
the  extraordinary  circumstances  of 
the  time  in  which  we  live,  we  may  re- 
cover from  those  depths  sometning 
of  a renewal  of  that  vision  of  the 
law  with  which  men  may  be  supposed 
to  have  started  out  in  the  old  days 
of  the  oracles,  who  communed  with 
the  intimations  of  divinity. 


ADDRESS  OF 

PRESIDENT  WILSON 

AT  Y.  M.  C.  A.  CELEBRATION 


serve  the  ordinary  rules  of  evidence; 
which  has  sometimes  suggested  to  me 
that  the  ordinary  rules  of  evidence 
had  shown  some  signs  of  growing  an- 
tique. Everything,  rumor  included,  is 
heard  in  this  court,  and  the  standard 
of  judgment  is  not  so  much  the  char- 
acter of  the  testimony  as  the  charac- 
ter of  the  witness.  The  motives  are 
disclosed,  the  purposes  are  conjec- 
tured, and  that  opinion  is  finally  ac- 
cepted which  seems  to  be,  not  the 
best  founded  in  law,  perhaps,  but 
the  best  founded  in  integrity  of  char- 
acter and  of  morals.  That  is  the  proc- 
ess which  is  slowly  working  its  will 
upon  the  world;  and  what  we  should 
be  watchful  of  is  not  so  much  jealous 
interests  as  sound  principles  of  ac- 
tion. The  disinterested  course  is  al- 
ways the  biggest  course  to  pursue  not 
only,  but  it  is  in  the  long  run  the  most 
profitable  course  to  pursue.  If  you  can 
establish  your  character  you  can  es- 
tablish your  credit. 

What  I wanted  to  suggest  to  this  as- 
sociation in  bidding  them  very  hearty 
welcome  to  the  city,  is  whether  we 
sufficiently  apply  these  same  ideas  to 
the  body  of  municipal  law  which  we 
seek  to  administer.  Citations  seem  to 
play  so  much  larger  a role  now  than 
principle.  There  was  a time  when  the 
thoughtful  eye  of  the  judge  rested 
upon  the  changes  of  social  circum- 
stances and  almost  palpably  saw  the 
law  arise  out  of  human  life.  Have 
we  got  to  a time  when  the  only  way 


PITTSBURG,  PA.,  OCTOBER  24,  1914 


R.  PRESIDENT,  Mr.  Porter, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen — I 
feel  almost  as  if  I were  a 
truant,  being  away  from 
Washington  today,  but  I 
thought  that  perhaps  if  I were  absent 
the  Congress  would  have  the  more 
leisure  to  adjourn.  I do  not  or- 
dinarily open  my  office  at  Washington 
on  Saturday.  Being  a schoolmaster,  I 
am  accustomed  to  a Saturday  holiday, 
and  I thought  I could  not  better  spend 
a holiday  than  by  showing  at  least 
something  of  the  true  direction  of  my 
affections;  for  by  long  association  with 
the  men  who  have  worked  for  this  or- 
ganization I can  say  that  it  has  enlist- 
ed my  deep  affection. 

I am  interested  in  it  for  various 
reasons.  First  of  all,  because  it  is  an 
association  of  young  men.  I have  had 
a good  deal  to  do  with  young  men  in 
my  time,  and  I have  formed  an  impres- 
sion of  them  which  I believe  to  be 
contrary  to  the  general  impression. 
They  are  generally  thought  to  be  arch 
I radicals.  As  a matter  of  fact,  they  are 


I the  most  conservative  people  I have 
ever  dealt  with.  Go  to  a college  com- 
munity and  try  to  change  the  least 
custom  of  that  little  world  and  find 
how  the  conservatives  will  rush  at 
you.  Moreover,  young  men  are  em- 
barrassed by  having  inherited  their 
fathers'  opinions.  I have  often  said 
that  the  use  of  a university  is  to  make 
young  gentlemen  as  unlike  their 
fathers  as  possible.  I do  not  say  that 
with  the  least  disrespect  for  the 
fathers;  but  every  man  who  is  old 
enough  to  have  a son  in  college  is  old 
enough  to  have  become  very  seriously 
immersed  in  some  particular  business 
and  is  almost  certain  to  have  caught 
the  point  of  view  of  that  particular 
business.  And  it  is  very  useful  to  his 
son  to  be  taken  out  of  that  narrow 
circle,  conducted  to  some  high  place 
where  he  may  see  the  general  map  of 
the  world  and  of  the  interests  of  man- 
kind, and  there  shown  how  big  the 
world  is  and  how  much  of  it  his  father 
may  happen  to  have  forgotten.  It 
would  be  worth  whilo  for  men,  middle- 
aged  and  old,  to  detach  themselves 
more  frequently  from  the  things  that 
command  their  daily  attention  and  to 
think  of  the  sweeping  tides  of  hu- 
njsnity. 

! ’herefore  I am  interested  in  this  as- 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


27 


aociation,  because  it  is  intended  to 
bring  young  men  together  before  any 
crust  has  formed  over  them,  before 
they  have  been  hardened  to  any  par- 
ticular occupation,  before  they  ha-fe 
caught  an  inveterate  point  of  view; 
while  they  still  have  a searchlight 
that  they  can  swing  and  see  what  it 
reveals  of  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  hidden  world. 

I am  the  more  interested  in  it  be- 
cause it  is  an  association  of  young  men 
who  are  Christians.  I wonder  if  we 
attach  sufficient  importance  to  Chris- 
tianity as  a mere  instrumentality  in 
the  life  of  mankind.  For  one,  I am 
not  fond  of  thinking  of  Christianity  as 
the  means  of  saving  individual  souls. 

I have  always  been  very  impatient  of 
processes  and  institutions  which  said 
that  their  purpose  was  to  put  every 
man  in  the  way  of  developing  his  char- 
acter. My  advice  is:  Do  not  think 

about  your  character.  If  you  will  think 
about  what  you  ought  to  do  for  other 
people,  your  character  will  take  care 
of  itself.  Character  is  a by-product, 
and  any  man  who  devotes  himself  to 
its  cultivation  in  his  own  case  will  be- 
come a selfish  prig.  The  only  way  your 
powers  can  become  great  is  by  exert- 
ing them  outside  the  circle  of  your 
narrow,  special,  selfish  interests.  And 
that  is  the  reason  of  Christianity. 
Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save 
others,  not  to  save  himself;  and  no 
man  is  a true  Christian  who  does  not 
think  constantly  of  how  he  can  lift 
his  brother,  how  he  can  assist  his 
friend,  how  he  can  enlighten  man- 
kind, how  he  can  make  virtue  the  rule 
of  conduct  in  the  circle  in  which  he 
lives.  An  association  merely  of  young 
men  might  be  an  association  that  had 
its  energies  put  forth  in  every  direc- 
tion, but  an  association  of  Christian 
young  men  is  an  association  meant  to 
put  its  shoulders  under  the  world  and 
lift  it,  so  that  other  men  may  feel 
that  they  have  companions  in  bearing 
the  weight  and  heat  of  the  day;  that 
other  men  may  know  that  there  are 
those  who  care  for  them,  who  would 
go  into  places  of  difficulty  and  danger 
to  rescue  them,  who  regard  themselves 
as  their  brother’s  keeper. 

And,  then,  I am  glad  that  it  is  an 
association.  Every  word  of  its  title 
means  an  element  of  strength.  Young 
men  are  strong.  Christian  young  men 
are  the  strongest  kind  of  young  men, 
and  when  they  associate  themselves 
together  they  have  the  incomparable 
strength  of  organization.  The  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  once  ex- 
cited, perhaps  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say,  the  hostility  of  the  oreanized 
churches  of  the  Christian  world,  be- 
cause the  movement  looked  as  if  it 
were  so  nonsectarian,  as  if  it  were  so 
outside  the  ecclesiastical  field,  that 
perhaps  it  was  an  effort  to  draw  young 
men  away  from  the  churches  and  to 
substitute  this  organization  for  the 
great  bodies  of  Christian  people  who 
Joined  themselves  in  the  Christian  de- 
nominations. But  after  a while  it  ap- 
peared that  it  was  a great  instrumen- 
tality that  belonged  to  all  the 
churches;  that  it  was  a common  in- 
strument for  sending  the  light  of 
Christianity  out  into  the  world  in  its 
most  practical  form,  drawing  young 
men  who  were  strangers  into  places 
where  they  could  have  companionship 
that  stimulated  them  and  suggestions 
that  kept  them  straight  and  occupa- 
tions that  amused  them  without  vi- 
cious practice;  and  then,  by  surround- 
ing themselves  with  an  atmosphere  of 
purity  and  of  simplicity  of  life,  catch 
something  of  a glimpse  of  the  great 
ideal  which  Christ  lifted  when  He  was 
elevated  upon  the  cross. 

I remember  hearing  a very  wise 
man  say  once,  a man  grown  old  in  the 
service  of  a great  church,  that  he  had 
never  taught  his  son  religion  dog- 
matically at  any  time;  that  he  and  the 
boy’s  mother  had  agreed  that  if  the 
atmosphere  of  that  home  did  not  make 


a Christian  of  the  boy,  nothing  that 
they  could  say  would  make  a Chris- 
tian of  him.  They  knew  that  Chris- 
tianity was  catching,  and  if  they  did 
not  have  it,  it  would  be  communicated. 
If  they  did  have  it,  it  would  penetrate 
while  the  boy  slept,  almost;  while  he 
was  unconscious  of  the  sweet  in- 
fluences that  were  about  him,  while  he 
reckoned  nothing  of  instruction,  but 
merely  breathed  into  his  lungs  the 
wholesome  air  of  a Christian  home. 
That  is  the  principle  of  the  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association — to  make 
a place  where  the  atmosphere  makes 
great  ideals  contagious.  That  is  the 
reason  that  I said,  though  I had  for- 
gotten that  I said  it,  what  is  quoted 
on  the  outer  page  of  the  programme — 
that  you  can  test  a modern  commu- 
nity by  the  degree  of  its  interest  in  its 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association. 
You  can  test  whether  it  knows  what 
road  it  'wants  to  travel  or  not.  You 
can  test  whether  it  is  deeply  interested 
in  the  spiritual  and  essential  pros- 
perity of  its  rising  generation.  I know 
of  no  test  that  can  be  more  conclusive- 
ly put  to  a community  than  that. 

I want  to  suggest  to  the  young  men 
of  this  association  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  young  men  not  only  to  combine  for 
the  things  that  are  good,  but  to  com- 
bine in  a militant  spirit.  There  is  a 
fine  passage  in  one  of  Milton’s  prose 
writings  which  I am  sorry  to  say  I 
cannot  quote,  but  the  meaning  of 
which  I can  give  you,  and  it  is  worth 
hearing.  He  says  that  he  has  no  pa- 
tience with  a cloistered  virtue  that 
does  not  go  out  and  seek  its  adversary. 
Ah,  how  tired  I am  of  the  men  who 
are  merely  on  the  defensive,  who 
hedge  enough  to  include  their  little 
family  circle  and  ward  off  all  the  evil 
influences  of  the  world  from  that 
loved  and  hallowed  group!  How  tired 
I am  of  the  men  whose  virtue  is  selfish 
because  it  is  merely  self-protective! 
And  how  much  I wish  that  men  by  the 
hundred  thousand  might  volunteer  to 
go  out  and  seek  the  adversary  and 
subdue  him! 

I have  had  the  fortune  to  take  part 
in  affairs  of  a considerable  variety  of 
sort*,  and  I have  tried  to  hate  as  few 
persons  as  possible,  but  there  is  an  ex- 
quisite combination  of  contempt  and 
hate  that  I have  for  a particular  kind 
of  person,  and  that  is  the  moral 
coward.  I wish  we  could  give  all  our 
cowards  a perpetual  vacation.  Let 
them  go  off  and  sit  on  the  side  lines 
and  see  us  play  the  game;  and  put 
them  off  the  field  if  they  interfere  with 
the  game.  They  do  nothing  but  harm, 
and  they  do  it  by  that  most  subtle  and 
fatal  thing  of  all,  that  of  taking  the 
momentum  and  the  spirit  and  the  for- 
ward dash  out  of  things.  A man  who 
is  virtuous  and  a coward  has  no 
marketable  virtue  about  him.  The 
virtue,  I repeat,  which  is  merely  self- 
defensive is  not  serviceable  even,  I 
suspect,  to  himself.  For  how  a man 
can  swallow  and  taste  bad  when  he 
is  a coward  and  thinking  only  of  him- 
self I cannot  imagine. 

Be  militant!  Be  an  organization 
that  is  going  to  do  things!  If  you  can 
find  older  men  who  will  give  you  coun- 
tenance and  acceptable  leadership, 
follow  them;  but  if  you  cannot,  or- 
ganize separately  and  dispense  with 
them.  There  are  only  two  sorts  of 
men  worth  associating  with  when 
something  is  to  be  done.  Those  are 
young  men  and  men  who  never  grow 
old.  Now,  if  yoti  find  men  who  have 
grown  old,  about  whom  the  crust  has 
hardened,  whose  hinges  are  stiff, 
whose  minds  always  have  their  eye 
over  the  shoulder  thinking  of  things 
as  they  were  done,  do  not  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  them.  It  would  not 
be  Christian  to  exclude  them  from 
your  organization,  but  merely  use 
them  to  pad  the  roll.  If  you  can  find 
older  men  who  will  lead  you  accept- 
ably and  keep  you  in  countenance,  1 


am  bound  as  an  older  man  to  advise 
you  to  follow  them.  But  suit  your- 
selves. Do  not  follow  people  that 
stand  still.  Just  remind  them  that  this 
is  not  a statical  proposition;  it  is  a 
movement,  and  if  they  cannot  get  a 
move  on  them  they  are  not  service- 
able. 

Life,  gentlemen — the  life  of  society, 
the  life  of  the  world — has  constantly 
to  be  fed  from  the  bottom.  It  has  to 
be  fed  by  those  great  sources  of 
strength  which  are  constantly  rising  in 
new  generations.  Red  blood  has  to  be 
pumped  into  it.  New  fiber  has  to  be 
supplied.  That  is  the  reason  I have 
always  said  that  I believed  in  popular 
institutions.  If  you  can  guess  before- 
hand whom  your  rulers  are  going  to 
be,  you  can  guess  with  a very  great 
certainty  that  most  of  them  will  not  be 
fit  to  rule.  The  beauty  of  popular  in- 
stitutions is  that  you  do  not  know 
where  the  man  is  going  to  come  from, 
and  you  do  not  care  so  he  is  the  right 
man.  You  do  not  know  whether  he 
will  come  from  the  avenue  or  from  the 
alley.  You  do  not  know  whether  he 
will  come  from  the  city  or  the  farm. 
You  do  not  know  whether  you  will 
ever  have  heard  that  name  before  or 
rot.  Therefore  you  do  iot  limit  at 
any  point  your  supply  of  new  strength. 
You  do  not  say  it  has  got  to  come 
through  the  blood  of  a particular  fam- 
ily or  through  the  processes  of  a par- 
ticular training,  or  by  anything  ex- 
cept the  native  impulse  and  genius  of 
the  man  himself.  The  humblest  hovel, 
therefore,  may  produce  you  your 
greatest  man.  A very  humble  hovel 
did  produce  you  one  of  your  greatest 
men.  That  is  the  process  of  life,  this 
constant  surging  up  of  the  new 
strength  of  unnamed,  unrecognized, 
uncatalogued  men  who  are  just  getting 
into  the  running,  who  are  just  coming 
up  from  the  masses  of  the  unrecog- 
nized multitude.  You  do  not  know 
when  you  will  see  above  the  level 
masses  of  the  crowd  some  great 
stature  lifted  head  and  shoulders 
above  the  rest,  shouldering  its  way, 
not  violently  but  gently,  to  the  front 
and  saying,  “Here  am  I;  follow  me.” 
And  his  voice  will  be  your  voice,  his 
thought  will  be  your  thought,  and  you 
will  follow  him  as  if  you  were  follow- 
ing the  best  things  in  yourselves. 

When  I think  of  an  association  of 
Christian  young  men  I wonder  that 
it  has  not  already  turned  the  world 
upside  down.  I wonder,  not  that  it 
has  done  so  much,  for  it  has  done  a 
great  deal,  but  that  it  has  done  so 
little;  and  I can  only  conjecture  that 
it  does  not  realize  its  own  strength. 
I can  only  imagine  that  it  has  not  yet 
got  its  pace.  I wish  I could  believe, 
and  I do  believe,  that  at  70  it  is  just 
reaching  its  majority,  and  that  from 
this  time  on  a dieam  greater  even 
than  George  Williams  ever  dreamed 
will  be  realized  in  the  great  accumu- 
lating momentum  of  Christian  men 
throughout  the  world.  For,  gentle- 
men, this  is  an  age  in  which  the  prin- 
ciples of  men  who  utter  public  opinjon 
dominate  the  world.  It  makes  no  dif- 
ference what  is  done  for  the  time  be- 
ing. After  the  struggle  is  over  the 
jury  will  sit,  and  nobody  can  corrupt 
the  jury. 

At  one  time  I tried  to  write  history. 
I did  not  know  enough  to  write  it,  but 
I knew  from  experience  how  hard  it 
was  to  find  an  historian  out,  and  I 
used  to  have  this  comfortable  thought 
as  I saw  men  struggling  in  the  public 
arena.  I used  to  think  to  myself, 
“This  is  all  very  well  and  very  inter- 
esting. You  probably  assess  yourself 
in  such  and  such  a way.  Those  who 
are  your  partisans  assess  you  thus  and 
so.  Those  who  are  your  opponents 
urge  a different  verdict.  But  it  does 
not  make  very  much  difference,  be- 
cause after  you  are  dead  and  gone 
some  quiet  historian  will  sit  in  a se- 
cluded room  and  tell  mankind  for  the 
rest  of  time  just  what  to  think  about 


r 28 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


you,  and  his  verdict,  not  the  verdict 
of  your  partisans  and  not  the  verdict 
of  your  opponents,  will  be  the  verdict 
of  posterity.”  I say  that  I used  to  say 
that  to  myself.  It  very  largely  was  not 
bo.  And  yet  it  was  true  in  this  sense: 
If  the  historian  really  speaks  the  judg- 
ment of  the  succeeding  generation, 
then  he  really  speaks  the  judgment 
also  of  the  generations  that  succeed  it, 
and  his  assessment,  made  without  the 
passion  of  the  time,  made  without  par- 
tisan feeling  in  the  matter — in  other 
circumstances,  when  the  air  is  cool — 
is  the  judgment  of  mankind  upon  your 
actions. 

Now,  is  it  not  very  important  that 
we  who  shall  constitue  a portion  of 
the  jury  should  get  our  best  judg- 
ments to  work  and  base  them  upon 
Christian  forbearance  and  Christian 
principles,  upon  the  idea  that  it  is 
impossible  by  sophistication  to  estab- 
lish that  a thing  that  is  wrong  is 
right?  And  yet,  while  we  are  going 
to  judge  with  the  absolute  standard  of 
righteousness,  we  are  going  to  judge 
with  Christian  feeling,  being  men  of 
a like  sort  ourselves,  suffering  the 
same  temptations,  having  the  same 
weaknesses,  knowing  the  same  pas- 
sions; and  while  we  do  not  condemn 
we  are  going  to  seek  to  say  and  to  live 
the  truth.  What  I am  hoping  for  is 
that  these  seventy  years  have  just 
been  a running  start,  and  that  now 
there  will  be  a great  rush  of  Christian 
principle  upon  the  strongholds  of  evil 
and  of  wrong  in  the  world.  Those 
strongholds  arc  not  as  strong  as  they 
look.  Almost  every  vicious  man  is 
afraid  of  society,  and  if  you  once  open 
the  door  where  he  is,  he  will  run.  All 
you  have  to  do  is  to  fight,  not  with 
cannon  but  with  light. 

May  I illustrate  it  in  this  way?  The 
Government  of  the  United  States  has 
just  succeeded  in  concluding  a large 
number  of  treaties  with  the  leading 
nations  of  the  world,  the  sum  and 
substance  of  which  is  this,  that  when- 
ever any  trouble  arises  the  light  shall 
shine  on  it  for  a year  before  anything 
is  done;  and  my  prediction  is  that 
after  the  light  has  shone  on  it  for  a 
year  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  do  any- 
thing; that  after  we  know  what  hap- 
pened, then  we  will  know  who  was 
right  and  who  was  wrong.  I believe 
that  light  is  the  greatest  sanitary  in- 
fluence in  the  world.  That,  I suppose, 
is  scientific  commonplace,  because  if 
you  want  to  make  a place  wholesome 
the  best  instrument  you  can  use  is  the 
sun;  to  let  his  rays  in,  let  him  search 
out  all  the  miasma  that  may  lurk 
there.  So  with  moral  light:  It  is  the 

most  wholesome  and  rectifying,  as 
well  as  the  most  revealing,  thing  in 
the  world,  provided  it  be  genuine 
moral  light;  not  the  light  of  inquisi- 
tiveness, not  the  light  of  the  man  who 
likes  to  turn  up  ugly  things,  not  the 
light  of  the  man  who  disturbs  what  is 
"cvrrzpt  for  the  mere  sake  of  the  sen- 
sation that  he  creates  by  disturbing  it, 
but  the  moral  light,  the  light  of  the 
man  who  discloses  it  in  order  that  all 
the  sweet  influences  of  the  world  may 
go  in  and  make  it  better. 

That,  in  1T.7  judgment,  is  what  the 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  can 
do.  It  can  point  out  to  its  members 
the  things  that  are  wrong.  It  can 
guide  the  feet  of  those  who  are  going 
astray;  and  when  its  members  have 
realized  the  power  of  the  Christian 
principle,  then  they  will  not  be  men 
ft  tihey  do  not  unite  to  see  that  the 
rest  or  the  world  experiences  the  same 
emancipation  and  reaches  the  same 
happiness  of  release. 

I believe  in  the  Young  Men’s  Chris- 
tian Association  because  I believe  in 
the  progress  of  moral  ideas  in  the 
world;  and  I do  not  know  that  I am 
sure  of  anything  else.  When  you  are 
after  something  and  have  formulated 
it  and  have  done  the  very  best  thing 
you  know  how  to  do,  you  have  got  to 


be  sure  for  the  time  being  that  that  is 
the  thing  to  do.  But  you  are  a fool 
if  in  the  back  of  your  head  you  do  not 
know  it  is  possible  that  you  are  mis- 
taken. All  that  you  can  claim  is  that 
that  is  the  thing  as  you  see  it  now  and 
that  you  cannot  stand  still;  that  you 
must  push  forward  the  things  that 
are  right.  It  may  turn  out  that  you 
made  mistakes,  but  what  you  do  know 
is  your  direction,  and  you  are  sure  you 
are  moving  in  that  way.  I was  once 
a college  reformer,  until  discouraged, 
and  I remember  a classmate  of  mine 
saying,  “Why,  man,  can’t  you  let  any- 
thing alone?”  I said,  “I  let  everything 
alone  that  you  can  show  me  is  not  it- 
self moving  in  the  wrong  direction, 
but  I am  not  going  to  let  those  things 
alone  that  I see  are  going  downhill”; 
and  I borrowed  this  illustration  from 
an  ingenious  writer.  He  says,  “If  vou 
have  a post  that  is  painted  white  and 
want  to  keep  it  white,  you  cannot  let 
it  alone;  and  if  anybody  says  to  you, 
‘Why  don’t  you  let  that  post  alone,’ 
you  will  say,  ‘Because  I want  it  to  stay 
white,  and  therefore  I have  got  to 
paint  it  at  least  every  second  year.’  ” 
There  isn’t  anything  in  this  world  that 
will  not  change  if  you  absolutely  let 
it  alone,  and  therefore  you  have  con- 
stantly to  be  attending  to  it  to  see 
that  it  is  being  taken  care  of  in  the 
right  way  and  that,  if  it  is  part  of  the 
motive  force  of  the  world,  it  is  moving 
in  the  right  direction. 

That  means  that  eternal  vigilance 
is  the  price,  not  only  of  liberty,  but  of 
a.  great  many  other  things.  It  is  the 
price  of  everything  that  is  good.  It 
is  the  price  of  one’  own  soul.  It  is  the 
price  of  the  souls  of  the  people  you 
love;  and  when  it  comes  down  to  the 
final  reckoning  you  have  a standard 
that  is  immutable.  What  shall  a man 
give  in  exchange  for  his  own  soul? 
Will  he  sell  that?  Will  he  consent  to 
see  another  man  sell  his  soul?  Will 
lie  consent  to  see  the  conditions  of  his 
community  such  that  men’s  souls  are 
debauched  and  trodden  under  foot  in 
the  mire?  What  shall  he  give  in  ex- 


change for  his  own  soul,  or  any  other 
man’s  soul?  And  since  the  world,  the 
world  of  affairs,  the  world  of  society, 
is  nothing  less  and  nothing  more  than 
all  of  us  put  together,  it  is  a great  en- 
terprise for  the  salvation  of  the  soul  in 
this  world  as  well  as  in  the  next.  There 
is  a text  in  Scripture  that  has  always 
interested  me  profoundly.  It  says  god- 
liness is  profitable  in  this  life  as  well 
as  in  the  life  that  is  to  come;  and  if 
you  do  not  start  it  in  this  life,  it  will 
not  reach  the  life  that  is  to  come. 
Your  measurements,  your  directions, 
your  whole  momentum,  have  to  be  es- 
tablished before  you  reach  the  next 
world.  This  world  is  intended  as  the 
place  in  which  we  shall  show  that  we 
know  how  to  grow  in  the  stature  of 
manliness  and  of  righteousness. 

I have  come  here  to  bid  Godspeed  to 
the  great  work  of  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association.  I love  to  think 
of  the  gathering  force  of  such  things 
as  this  in  the  generations  to  come.  If 
a man  had  to  measure  the  accomplish- 
ments of  society,  the  progress  of  re- 
form, the  speed  of  the  world’s  better- 
ment, by  the  few  little  things  that  hap- 
pened in  his  own  life,  by  the  trifling 
things  that  he  can  contribute  to  ac- 
complish, he  would  indeed  feel  that 
the  cost  was  much  greater  than  the 
result.  But  no  man  can  look  at  the 
past  of  the  history  of  this  world  with- 
out seeing  a vision  of  the  future  of  the 
history  of  this  world;  and  when  you 
think  of  the  accumulated  moral  forces 
that  have  made  one  age  better  than 
another  age  in  the  progress  of  man- 
kind, then  you  can  open  your  eyes  to 
the  vision.  You  can  see  that  age  by 
age,  though  with  a blind  struggle  in 
the  dust  of  the  road,  though  often 
mistaking  the  path  and  losing  its  way 
in  the  mire,  mankind  is  yet — -some- 
times with  bloody  hands  and  battered 
knees — nevertheless  struggling  step 
after  step  up  the  slow  stages  to  the 
day  when  he  shall  live  in  the  full  light 
which  shines  upon  the  uplands,  where 
all  the  light  that  illumines  mankind 
shines  direct  from  the  face  of  God. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

AT  INDIANAPOLIS,  IND. 

JANUARY  8,  1915 


OVERNOR  RALSTON,  Ladies 
and  Gentlemen — You  have 
given  me  a most  royal  wel- 
some,  for  which  I thank  you 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart. 
It  is  rather  lonely  living  in  Wash- 
ington. I have  been  confined  for  two 
years  at  hard  labor,  and  even  now  I 
feel  that  I am  simply  out  on  parole. 
You  notice  that  one  of  the  most  dis-  / 
tinguished  members  of  the  United 
States  Senate  is  here  to  see  that  I go 
back.  And  yet,  with  sincere  apologies 
to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, I want  to  say  that  I draw 
more  inspiration  from  you  than  I do 
from  them.  They,  like  myself,  are 
only  servants  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  Our  sinews  consist  in- 
your  sympathy  and  support,  and  our 
renewal  comes  from  contact  with  you 
and  with  the  strong  movements  of 
public  opinion  in  the  country. 

That  is  the  reason  why  I for  one 
would  prefer  that  our  thoughts  should 
not  too  often  cross  the  ocean,  but 


should  center  themselves  upon  the 
policies  and  duties  of  the  United 
States.  If  we  think  rightly  of  the 
United  States,  when  the  time  comes 
we  shall  know  how  this  country  can 
serve  the  world.  I will  borrow  a very 
interesting  phrase  from  a dis- 
tinguished gentleman  of  my  acquant- 
ance  and  beg  that  you  will  “keep  your 
moral  powder  dry.” 

But  I have  come  here  on  Jackson 
Day.  If  there  are  Republicans  pres- 
ent, I hope  they  will  feel  the  com- 
pelling influences  of  such  a day.  There 
was  nothing  mild  about  Andrew  Jack- 
son;  that  is  the  reason  I spoke  of  the 
“compelling  influences”  of  the  day. 
Andrew  Jackson  was  a forthright  man 
who  believed  everything  he  did  be- 
lieve in  fighting  earnest.  And  really, 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  public  life 
that  is  the  only  sort  of  man  worth 
thinking  about  for  a moment.  If  I 
was  not  ready  to  fight  for  everything 
I believe  in,  I would  think  it  my  duty 
to  go  back  and  take  a back  seat.  I 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


29 


like,  therefore,  to  breathe  the  air  of 
Jackson  Day.  I lixe  to  be  reminded 
of  the  old  militant  hosts  of  Democ- 
racy which  I believe  have  come  to  life 
again  in  our  time.  The  United  States 
had  almost  forgotten  that  it  must 
keep  its  fighting  ardor  in  behalf  of 
mankind  when  Andrew  Jackson  be- 
came President;  and  you  will  notice 
that  whenever  the  United  States  for- 
gets its  ardor  for  mankind  it  is  neces- 
sary that  a Democrat  should  be 
elected  President. 

The  trouble  with  the  Republican 
party  is  that  it  has  not  had  a new 
idea  for  thirty  years.  I am  not  speak- 
ing as  a politician;  I am  speaking  as 
an  historian.  I have  looked  for  new 
ideas  in  the  records  and  I have  not 
found  any  proceeding  from  the  Re- 
publican ranks.  They  have  had  lead- 
ers from  time  to  time  who  suggested 
new  ideas,  but  they  never  did  any- 
thing to  carry  them  out.  I suppose 
there  was  no  harm  in  their  talking, 
provided  they  could  not  do  anything. 
Therefore,  when  it  was  necessary  to 
say  that  we  had  talked  about  things 
long  enough  which  it  was  necessary 
to  do,  and  the  time  had  come  to  do 
them,  it  was  indispensable  that  a 
Democrat  should  be  elected  President. 

I would  not  speak  with  disrespect 
of  the  Republican  party.  I always 
speak  with  great  respect  of  the  past. 
The  past  was  necessary  to  the  present, 
and  was  a sure  prediction  of  the  fu- 
ture. The  Republican  party  is  still  a 
covert  and  refuge  for  those  who  are 
afraid,  for  those  who  want  to  consult 
their  grandfathers  about  everything. 
You  will  notice  that  most  of  the  ad- 
vice taken  by  the  Republican  party  is 
taken  from  gentlemen  old  enough  to 
be  grandfathers,  and  that  when  they 
claim  that  a reaction  has  taken  place, 
they  react  to  the  re-election  of  the 
oldest  members  of  their  party.  They 
will  not  trust  the  youngsters.  They 
are  afraid  the  youngsters  may  have 
something  up  their  sleeve. 

You  will  see,  therefore,  that  I have 
come  to  you  in  the  spirit  of  Jackson 
Day.  I got  very  tired  staying  in  Wash- 
ington and  saying  sweet  things.  I 
wanted  to  come  out  and  get  contact 
with  you  once  more  and  say  what  I 
really  thought. 

My  friends,  what  I particularly 
want  you  to  observe  is  this,  that  poli- 
tics in  this  country  does  not  depend 
any  longer  upon  the  regular  mem- 
bers of  either  party.  There  are  not 
enough  regular  Republicans  in  this 
country  to  take  and  hold  national 
power;  and  I must  immediately  add 
there  are  not  enough  regular  Demo- 
ocrats  in  this  country  to  do  it,  either. 
This  country  is  guided  and  its  policy 
is  determined  by  the  independent 
voter;  and  I have  come  to  ask  you 
how  we  can  best  prove  to  the  inde- 
pendent voter  that  the  instrument  he 
needs  is  the  Democratic  - party,  and 
that  it  would  be  hopeless  for  him  to 
attempt  to  use  the  Republican  party. 
I do  not  have  to  prove  it — I admit 
it. 

What  seems  to  me  perfectly  evident 
is  this:  That  if  you  made  a rough 

reckoning,  you  would  have  to  admit 
that  only  about  om»-third  of  tJie  Re- 
publican party  is  progressive;  and 
you  would  also  have  to  q.dmit  that 
about  two-thirds  of  the  Democratic 
party  is  progressive.  Therefore,  the 
independent  progressive  voter  finds  a 
great  deal  more  company  in  the  Dem- 
ocratic ranks  than  in  the  Republican 
ranks.  I say  a great  deal  more,  be- 
cause there  are  Democrats  who  are 
sitting  on  the  breeching  strap;  there 
are  Democrats  who  are  holding  back; 
there  are  Democrats  who  are  nervous. 
I dare  say  they  were  born  with  that 
temperament-  And  I respect  the  con- 
servative temper.  I claim  to  be  an 
animated  conservative  myself,  be- 
cause being  a conservative  I under- 
hand to  mean  being  a man  not  only 


who  preserves  what  is  best  in  the  Na- 
tion but  who  sees  that  in  order  to  pre- 
serve it  you  dare  not  stand  still  but 
must  move  forward.  The  virtue  of 
America  is  not  statical;  it  is  dynamic. 
All  the  forces  of  America  are  forces 
in  action  or  else  they  are  forces  of 
inertia. 

What  I want  to  point  out  to  you — 
and  I believe  that  this  is  what  the 
whole  country  is  beginning  to  per- 
ceive— is  this,  that  there  is  a larger 
body  of  men  in  the  regular  ranks  of 
the  Democratic  party  who  believe  in 
the  progressive  policies  of  our  day 
and  mean  to  see  them  carried  for- 
ward and  perpetuated  than  there  is 
in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party. 
How  can  it  be  otherwise,  gentlemen? 
The  Democratic  party,  and  only  the 
Democratic  party,  has  carried  out  the 
policies  which  the  progressive  people 
of  this  country  have  desired.  There 
is  not  a single  great  act  of  this  present 
great  Congress  which  has  not  been 
carried  out  in  obedience  to  the  public 
opinion  of  America;  and  the  public 
opinion  of  America  is  not  going  to 
permit  any  body  of  men  to  go  back- 
ward with  regard  to  these  great  mat- 
ters. 

Let  me  instance  a single  thing:  I 

want  to  ask  the  business  men  here 
present  if  this  is  not  the  first  Jan- 
uary in  their  recollection  that  did  not 
bring  a money  stringency  for  the  time 
being,  because  of  the  necessity  of  pay- 
ing out  great  sums  of  money  by  way 
of  dividends  and  the  other  settlements 
which  come  at  the  first  of  the  year? 
I have  asked  the  bankers  if  that  hap- 
pened this  year,  and  they  say,  “No;  it 
did  not  happen;  it  could  not  happen 
under  the  Federal  Reserve  Act.”  We 
have  emancipated  the  credits  of  this 
country;  and  is  there  anybody  here 
who  will  doubt  that  the  other  policies 
that  have  given  guaranty  to  this  coun- 
try that  there  will  be  free  competi- 
tion are  policies  which  this  country 
will  never  allow  to  be  reversed?  I 
have  taken  a long  time,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  to  select  the  Federal 
Trade  Commission,  because  I wanted 
to  choose  men  and  be  sure  that  I had 
chosen  men  who  would  be  really  ser- 
viceable to  the  business  men  of  this 
country,  great  as  well  as  small,  the 
rank  and  the  file.  These  things  have 
been  done  and  will  never  be  undone. 
They  were  talked  about  and  talked 
about  with  futility  until  a Democratic 
Congress  attempted  and  achieved 
them. 

But  the  Democratic  party  is  not  to 
suppose  that  it  is  done  with  the  bus- 
iness. The  Democratic  party  is  still 
on  trial.  The  Democratc  party  still 
has  to  prove  to  the  independent  vot- 
ers of  the  country  not  only  that  it 
believes  in  these  things,  but  that  it 
will  continue  to  work  along  these  lines 
and  that  it  will  not  allow  any  enemy 
of  these  things  to  break  its  ranks. 
This  country  is  not  going  to  use  any 
party  that  cannot  do  continuous  and 
consistent  teamwork.  If  any  group 
of  men  should  dare  to  break  the  soli- 
darity of  the  Democratic  team  for  any 
purpose  or  from  any  motive,  theirs 
will  be  a most  unenviable  notoriety 
and  a responsibility  which  will  bring 
deep  bitterness  to  them.  The  only 
party  that  is  serviceable  to  a nation  is 
a party  that  can  hold  absolutely  to- 
gether and  march  with  the  discipline 
and  with  the  zest  of  a conquering 
host. 

I am  not  saying  these  things  be- 
cause I doubt  that  the  Democratic 
party  will  be  able  to  do  this,  but  be- 
cause I believe  that  as  leader  for  the 
time  being  of  that  party  I can  prom- 
ise the  country  that  it  will  do  these 
things.  I know  my  colleagues  at 
Washington;  I know  their  spirit  and 
their  purpose;  and  I know  that  they 
have  the  same  emotion,  the  same 
high  emotion  of  public  service,  that 
I hope  I have. 


I want  at  this  juncture  to  pay  my 
tribute  of  respect  and  of  affectionate 
admiration  for  the  two  great  Demo- 
cratic Senators  from  the  State  of  In- 
diana. I have  never  had  to  lie  awake 
nights  wondering  what  they  were  go- 
ing to  do.  And  the  country  is  not  go- 
ing to  trouble  itself,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, to  lie  awake  nights  and  wonder 
what  men  are  going  to  do.  If  they 
have  to  do  that,  they  will  choose  other 
men.  Teamwork  all  the  time  is 
what  they  are  going  to  demand  of  us, 
and  that  is  our  individual  as  well  as 
our  collective  responsibility.  That  is 
what  Jackson  stands  for.  If  a man 
will  not  play  with  the  team,  then  ha 
does  not  belong  to  the  team.  You 
see,  I have  spent  a large  part  of  my 
life  in  college  and  I know  what  a 
team  means  when  I see  it;  and  I know 
what  the  captain  of  a team  must  have 
if  he  is  going  to  win.  So  it  is  no  idle 
figure  of  speech  with  me. 

Now,  what  is  their  duty?  You  say, 
“Hastn’t  this  Congress  carried  out  a 
great  programme?”  Yes,  it  has  car- 
ried out  a great  programme.  It  has 
had  the  most  remarkable  record  that 
any  Congress  since  the  Civil  War  has 
had;  and  I say  since  the  Civil  War 
because  I have  not  had  time  to  think 
about  those  before  the  Civil  War.  But 
we  are  living  at  an  extraorodinary 
moment.  The  world  has  never  been 
in  the  condition  that  it  is  in  now,  my 
friends.  Half  the  world  is  on  fire. 

Only  America  among  the  great  powers 
of  the  world  is  free  to  govern  her  own 
life;  and  all  the  world  is  looking  to 
America  to  serve  its  economic  need. 

And  while  this  is  happening  what  is 
going  on? 

Do  you  know,  gentlemen,  that  the 
ocean  freight  rates  have  gone  up  ir» 
some  instances  to’  ten  times  their  or- 
dinary figure?  and  that  the  farmers 
of  the  United  States,  those  who  raise 
grain  and  those  who  raise  cotton — 
these  things  that  are  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  the  world  as  well  as  to  our- 
selves— cannot  get  their  due  profit  out 
of  the  great  prices  that  they  are  will- 
ing to  pay  for  these  things  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sea,  because  the 
whole  profit  is  eaten  up  by  the 
extortionate  charges  for  ocean  car- 
riage? In  the  midst  of  this  the  Demo- 
crats propose  a temporary  measure  of 
relief  in  a shipping  bill.  The  mer- 
chants and  the  farmers  of  this  coun- 
try must  have  ships  to  carry  their 
goods.  Just  at  the  present  moment 
there  is  no  other  way  of  getting  them 
than  through  the  instrumentality  that 
is  suggested  in  the  shipping  bill.  I 
hear  it  said  in  Washington  on  all 
hands  that  the  Republicans  in  the 
United  States  Senate  mean  to  talk 
enough  to  make  the  passage  of  that 
bill  impossible.  These  self-styled 
friends  of  business,  these  men  who  say 
the  Democratic  party  does  not  know 
what  to  do  for  business,  are  saying 
that  the  Democrats  shall  do  nothing 
for  business.  I challenge  them  to 
show  their  right  to  stand  in  the  way  of 
the  release  of  American  products  to 
the  rest  of  the  world!  Who  commis- 
sioned them — a minority,  a lessening 
minority?  (For  they  will  be  in 
greater  minority  in  the  next  Senate 
than  in  this.)  You  know  it  Is  the  pe- 
culiarity of  that  great  body  that  it  has 
rules  of  procedure  which  make  it  pos- 
sible for  a minority  to  defy  the  Na- 
tion; and  these  gentlemen  are  now 
seeking  to  defy  the  Nation  and  prevent 
the  release  of  American  products  to 
the  suffering  world  which  needs  them 
more  than  it  ever  needed  them  be- 
fore. Their  credentials  as  friends  of 
business  and  friends  of  America  wi'ri 
be  badly  discredited  if  they  succeed. 

If  I were  speaking  from  a selfish,  par- 
tisan point  of  view,  I could  wish  noth- 
ing better  than  that  they  should  show 
their  true  colors  as  partisans  and  suc- 
ceed. But  I am  not  quite  so  malevo- 
lent as  that.  Some  of  them  are  mis®  A. 
guided;  sass. a ii&sz  «ra  Mia&i  saaf. 


30 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


of  them  are  ignorant.  I would  rather 
pray  for  them  than  abuse  them.  The 
great  voice  of  America  ought  to  make 
them  understand  what  they  are  said 
to  be  attempting  now  really  means.  I 
have  to  say  “are  said  to  be  attempt- 
ing,” because  they  do  not  come  and 
tell  me  that  they  are  attempting  them. 
I do  not  know  why.  I would  ex- 
press my  opinion  of  them  in  parliamen- 
tary language,  but  I would  express  it, 
I hope,  no  less  plainly  because  couched 
in  the  terms  of  courtesy.  This  country 
is  bursting  its  jacket,  and  they  are 
seeing  to  it  that  the  jacket  is  not  only 
kept  tight  but  is  riveted  with  steel. 

The  Democratic  party  does  know 
how  to  serve  business  in  this  country, 
and  its  future  programme  is  a pro- 
gramme of  service.  We  have  cleared 
the  decks.  We  have  laid  the  lines  now 
upon  which  business  that  was  to  do 
the  country  harm  shall  be  stopped 
and  an  economic  control  which  was 
intolerable  shall  be  broken  up.  We 
have  emancipated  America,  but  Amer- 
ica must  do  something  with  her  free- 
dom. There  are  great  bills  pending  in 
the  United  States  Senate  just  now  that 
have  been  passed  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  which  are  intended  as 
constructive  measures  in  behalf  of  bus- 
iness— one  great  measure  which  will 
make  available  the  enormous  water 
powers  of  this  country  for  the  indus- 
try of  it;  another  bill  which  will  un- 
lock the  resources  of  the  public  do- 
main which  the  Republicans,  desiring 
to  save,  locked  up  so  that  nobody  could 
use  them. 

The  reason  I say  the  Republicans 
have  not  had  a new  idea  in  thirty  years 
is  that  they  have  not  known  how  to 
do  anything  except  sit  on  the  lid-  If 
you  can  release  the  steam  so  that  it 
will  drive  great  industries,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  sit  on  the  lid.  What  we 
are  trying  to  do  in  the  great  conserva- 
tion bill  is  to  carry  out  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  United  States 
a system  by  which  the  great  resources 
of  this  country  can  be  used  instead  of 
being  set  aside  so  that  no  man  can  get 
at  them.  I shall  watch  with  a great 
deal  of  interest  what  the  self-styled 
friends  of  business  try  to  do  to  those 
bills.  Do  not  misunderstand  me. 
There  are  some  men  on  that  side  of 
the  Chamber  who  understand  the 
value  of  these  things  and  are  standing 
valiantly  by  them,  but  they  are  a small 
minority.  The  majority  that  is  stand- 
ing by  them  is  on  our  side  of  the 
Chamber,  and  they  are  friends  of 
America. 

But  there  are  other  things  which  we 
have  to  do.  Sometimes  when  I Iook 
abroad,  my  friends,  and  see  the  great 
mass  of  struggling  humanity  on  this 
continent,  it  goes  very  much  to  my 
heart  to  see  how  many  men  are  at  a 
disadvantage  and  are  without  guides 
and  helpers.  Don’t  you  think  it  would 
be  a.  pretty  good  idea  for  the  Demo- 
cratic party  to  undertake  a systematic 
method  of  helping  the  workingmen  of 
America?  There  is  one  very  simple 
way  in  which  they  can  help  the  work- 
ingmen. If  you  were  simply  to  estab- 
lish a great  Federal  employment  bu- 
reau it  would  do  a vast  deal.  By  the 
Federal  agencies  which  spread  over 
this  country  men  could  be  directed  to 
those  parts  of  the  country,  to  those 
undertakings,  to  those  tasks  where 
they  could  find  profitable  employment. 
The  labor  of  this  country  needs  to  bo 
guided  from  opportunity  to  opportu- 
nity. We  proved  it  the  other  day.  We 
were  told  that  in  two  States  of  the 
Union  30,000  men  were  needed  to 
gather  the  crops.  We  suggested  in  a 
Cabinet  meeting  that  the  Department 
of  Labor  should  have  printed  informa- 
tion about  this  in  such  a form  that  it 
could  be  posted  up  in  the  post  offices 
all  over  the  United  States,  and  that 
the  Department  of  Labor  should  get  in 
touch  with  the  labor  departments  of 
the  States,  so  that  notice  could  go  out 
from  them,  and  their  co-operation  ob- 
tained. What  was  the  result?  Those 


30,000  men  were  found  and  were  sent 
to  the  places  where  they  got  profitable 
employment.  I do  not  know  any  one 
thing  that  has  happened  in  my  admin- 
istration that  made  me  feel  happier 
than  that — that  the  job  and  the  man 
had  been  brought  together.  It  will 
not  cost  a great  deal  of  money  and  it 
will  do  a great  deal  of  service  if  the 
United  States  were  to  undertake  to  do 
such  things  systematically  and  all  the 
year  round;  and  I for  my  part  hope 
that  it  will  do  that.  If  I were  writ- 
ing an  additional  plank  for  a Demo- 
cratic platform  I would  put  that  in. 

There  is  another  thing  that  needs 
very  much  to  be  done.  I am  not  one 
of  those  who  doubt  either  the  industry 
or  the  learning  or  the  integrity  of  the 
courts  of  the  United  States,  but  I do 
know  that  they  have  a very  antiquated 
way  of  doing  business.  I do  know  that 
the  United  States  in  its  judicial  proced- 
ure is  many  decades  behind  every 
other  civilized  government  in  the 
world,  and  I say  that  it  is  an  immedi- 
ate and  an  imperative  call  upon  us  to 
rectify  that,  because  the  speediness  of 
justice,  the  inexpensiveness  of  justice, 
the  ready  access  to  justice,  is  the  great- 
er part  of  justice  itself.  If  you  have  to 
be  rich  to  get  justice,  because  of  the 
cost  of  the  very  process  itself,  then 
there  is  no  justice  at  all.  So  I say  this 
is  another  direction  in  which  we  ought 
to  be  very  quick  to  see  the  signs  of  the 
times  and  to  help  those  who  need  to  be 
helped. 

Then  there  is  something  else.  The 
Democrats  have  heard  the  Republi- 
cans talking  about  the  scientific  way  in 
which  to  handle  a tariff,  though  the 
Republicans  have  never  given  any  ex- 
hibition of  a knowledge  of  how  to  han- 
dle it  scientifically.  If  it  is  scientific  to 
put  additional  profits  into  the  hands  of 
those  who  are  already  getting  the 
greater  part  of  the  profits,  then  they 
have  been  exceedingly  scientific.  It 
has  been  the  science  of  selfishness;  it 
has  been  the  science  of  privilege.  That 
kind  of  science  I do  not  care  to  know 
anythingaboutexcept  enough  to  stop  it. 
But  if  by  scientific  treatment  of  the 
tariff  they  mean  adjustment  to  the 
actual  trade  conditions  of  America  and 
the  world,  then  I am  with  them;  and  I 
want  to  call  their  attention — for 
though  they  voted  for  it  they  appar- 
ently have  not  noticed  it— to  the  fact 
that  the  bill  which  creates  the  new 
Trade  Commission  does  that  very 
thing.  We  were  at  pains  to  see  that 
it  was  put  in  there.  The  commission 
is  authorized  and  empowered  to  in- 
quire into  and  report  to  Congress  not 
only  upon  all  the  conditions  of  trade 
in  this  country,  but  upon  the  condi- 
tions of  trade,  the  cost  of  manufacture, 
the  cost  of  transportation — all  the 
things  that  enter  into  the  question  of 
the  tariff — in  foreign  countries  and  in- 
to all  those  questions  of  foreign  com- 
binations which  affect  international 
trade  between  Europe  and  the  United 
States.  It  has  the  full  powers  which 
will  guide  Congress  in  the  scientific 
treatment  of  questions  of  international 
trade.  Being  by  profession  a school- 
master, I am  glad  to  point  that  out  to 
the  class  of  uninstructed  Republi- 
cans, though  I have  not  always  taught 
in  the  primary  grade. 

At  every  turn  the  things  that  the 
progressive  Republicans  have  pro- 
posed that  were  practicable,  the  Dem- 
ocrats either  have  done  or  are  imme- 
diately proposing  to  do.  If  that  is 
not  our  bill  of  particulars  to  satisfy  the 
independent  voters  of  the  country,  I 
would  like  to  have  one  produced. 
There  are  things  that  the  Progressive 
programme  contained  which  we,  being 
constitutional  lawyers,  happened  to 
know  cannot  be  done  by  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States.  That  is  a detail 
which  they  seem  to  have  overlooked. 
But  so  far  as  they  can  be  done  by 
State  legislatures,  I,  for  one,  speaking 
for  one  Democrat,  am  heartily  in  favor 
of  their  being  done.  Because  Demo- 
crats do  not  congregate  merely  i: 


Washington.  They  congregate  also  in 
the  State  capitoli,  and  they  congre- 
gate  there  in  very  influential  numbers 
and  with  very  influential  organizations. 

, Just  before  I came  away  from  Wash- 
ington I was  going  over  some  of  the 
figures  of  the  last  elections,  the  elec- 
tions of  November  last.  The  official 
returns  have  not  all  come  in  yet.  I 
do  not  know  why  they  are  so  slow  in 
getting  to  us,  but  so  far  as  they  have 
come  in  they  have  given  me  this  useful 
information,  that  taking  the  States 
where  Senators  were  elected,  and 
where  Senators  were  not  elected, 
taking  the  election  of  Governors, 
and  where  Governors  were  not  elected, 
taking  the  returns  for  the  State  legis- 
latures or  for  the  congressional  dele- 
gates, the  Democrats,  reckoning  State 
by  State,  would,  if  it  had  been  a presi- 
dential year,  have  had  a majority  of 
about  eighty  in  the  Electoral  College. 
Fortunately  or  unfortunately,  this  is 
not  a presidential  year;  but  the  thing 
is  significant  to  me  for  this  reason.  A 
great  many  people  have  been  speaking 
of  the  Democratic  party  as  a minority 
party.  Well,  if  it  is,  it  is  not  so  much 
of  a minority  party  as  the  Republican, 
and  as  between  the  minorities  I think 
we  can  claim  to  belong  to  the  larger 
minority.  The  moral  of  that  is  merely 
what  I have  already  been  pointing  out 
to  you,  that  neither  party  in  its  regular 
membership  has  a majority.  I do  not 
want  to  make  the  independent  voter 
too  proud  of  himself,  but  I have  got  to 
admit  that  he  is  our  boss;  and  I am 
bound  to  admit  that  the  things  that 
he  wants  are,  so  far  as  I have  seen 
them  mentioned,  things  that  I want. 

I am  not  an  independent  voter,  but 
I hope  I can  claim  to  be  an  independ- 
ent person,  and  I want  to  say  this  dis- 
tinctly: I do  not  love  any  party  any 
longer  than  it  continues  to  serve  the 
immediate  and  pressing  needs  of 
America.  I have  been  bred  in  the 
Democratic  party;  I love  the  Demo- 
cratic party:  but  I love  America  a 
great  deal  more  than  I love  the  Demo- 
cratic party;  and  when  the  Democratio 
party  thinks  that  it  is  an  end  in  itself 
then  I rise  up  and  dissent.  It  is  a 
means  to  an  end,  and  its  power  de- 
pends, and  ought  to  depend,  upon  its 
showing  that  it  knows  what  America 
needs  and  is  ready  to  give  it  what  it 
needs.  That  is  the  reason  I say  to  the 
independent  voter  you  have  got  us  in 
the  palm  of  your  hand.  I do  not  hap- 
pen to  be  one  of  your  number,  but  I 
recognize  your  supremacy,  because  I 
read  the  election  returns;  and  I have 
this  ambition,  my  Democratic  friends 
— I can  avow  it  on  Jackson  Day — I 
want  to  make  every  independent  voter 
in  this  country  a Democrat.  It  is  a lit- 
tle cold  and  lonely  out  where  he  is, 
because,  though  he  holds  the  balance 
of  power,  he  is  not  the  majority,  and  I 
want  him  to  come  in  where  it  is  warm. 

I want  him  to  come  in  where  there  is 
a lot  of  good  society,  good  compan- 
ionship, where  there  are  great  emo- 
tions. That  is  what  I miss  in  the  Re- 
publican party;  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  any  great  emotions.  They  seem 
to  think  a lot  of  things.  Old  things, 
but  they  do  not  seem  to  have  any  en- 
thusiasm about  anything. 

There  is  one  thing  I have  got  a 
great  enthusiasm  about,  I might  al- 
most say  a reckless  enthusiasm,  and 
that  is  human  liberty.  The  Governor 
has  just  now  spoken  about  watchful 
waiting  in  Mexico.  I want  to  say  a 
word  about  Mexico,  or  not  so  much 
about  Mexico  as  about  our  attitude  to- 
wards Mexico.  I hold  it  as  a funda- 
mental principle,  and  so  do  you,  that 
every  people  has  the  right  to  deter- 
mine its  own  form  of  government;  y 
and  until  this  recent  revolution  in  ' 
Mexico,  until  the  end  of  the  Diaz 
reign,  80  per  cent,  of  the  people  of 
Mexico  never  had  a “look  in”  in  de*  \ 
termining  who  should  be  their  gov-  , 
ernors  or  what  their  government 
should  be.  Now,  I am  for  the  &(k  per  ' 
cent.!  It  is  none  of  my  buslness,4ind 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


31 


It  is  none  of  your  business  how  long 
they  take  in  determining.  It  is  none 
of  my  business,  and  it  is  none  of  yours, 
how  they  go  about  the  business.  The 
country  is  theirs.  The  government  is 
theirs.  The  liberty,  if  they  can  get  it, 
and  Godspeed  them  in  getting  it,  is 
theirs.  And  so  far  as  my  influence 
goes  while  I am  President  nobody 
shall  interfere  with  them. 

That  is  what  I mean  by  a great 
emotion,  the  great  emotion  of  sym- 
pathy. Do  you  suppose  that  the 
American  people  are  ever  going  to 
count  a small  amount  of  material 
benefit  and  advantage  to  people  doing 
business  in  Mexico  against  the  liber- 
ties and  the  permanent  happiness  of 
the  Mexican  people?  Have  not  Euro- 
pean nations  taken  as  long  as  they 
wanted  and  spilt  as  much  blood  as 
they  pleased  in  settling  their  affairs, 
and  shall  we  deny  that  to  Mexico  be- 
cause she  is  weak?  No,  I say!  I am 
proud  to  belong  to  a strong  nation 
that  says,  “This  country  which  we 
could  crush  shall  have  just  as  much 
freedom  in  her  own  affairs  as  we 
have.”  If  I am  strong,  I am  ashamed 
to  bully  the  weak.  In  proportion  to 
my  strength  is  my  pride  in  withhold- 
ing that  strength  from  the  oppression 
of  another  people.  And  I know  when 
I speak  these  things,  not  merely  from 
the  generous  response  with  which  they 
have  just  met  from  you,  but  from  my 
long-time  knowledge  of  the  American 
people  that  that  is  the  sentiment  of 
this  great  people.  With  all  due  re- 
spect to  editors  of  great  newspapers, 

I have  to  say  to  them  that  I seldom 
take  my  opinion  of  the  American  peo- 
ple from  their  editorials.  When  some 
great  dailies  not  very  far  from  where 
I am  temporarily  residing  thundered 
•with  rising  scorn  at  watchful  waiting, 
my  confidence  was  not  for  a moment 
shaken.  I knew  what  were  the  temper 
and  principles  of  the  American  people. 
If  I did  not  at  least  think  I knew,  I 
would  emigrate,  because  I would  not 
be  satisified  to  stay  where  I am.  There 
may  come  a time  when  the  American 
people  will  have  to  judge  whether  I 
know  what  I am  talking  about  or  not, 
but  at  least  for  two  years  more  I am 
free  to  think  that  I do,  with  a great 
comfort  in  immunity  in  the  time  being. 

It  is,  by  the  way,  a very  comfort- 
ing thought  that  the  next  Congress  of 
the  United  States  is  going  to  be  very 
safely  Democratic  and  that,  therefore, 
we  can  all  together  feel  as  much  con- 
fidence as  Jackson  did  that  we  know 
what  we  are  about.  You  know  Jack- 
son  used  to  think  that  everybody  who 
disagreed  with  him  was  an  enemy  ot 
the  country.  I have  never  got  quite 
that  far  in  my  thought,  but  I have 
ventured  to  think  that  they  did  not 
know  what  they  were  talking  about, 
knowing  that  my  fellow  Democrats 
expected  me  to  live  up  to  the  full 
stature  of  Jacksonian  Democracy. 

I feel,  my  friends,  in  a very  confi- 
dent mood  today.  I feel  confident  that 
we  do  know  the  spirit  of  the  Amer- 
ican people,  that  we  do  know  the  pro- 
gramme of  betterment  which  it  will  be 
necessary  for  us  to  undertake,  that  we 
do  have  a very  reasonable  confidence 
in  the  support  of  the  American  people. 

I have  been  talking  with  business  men 
recently  about  the  present  state  of 
mind  of  American  business.  There  is 
nothing  the  matter  with  American 
business.  There  is  nothing  the  matter 
with  American  business  except  a state 
of  mind.  I understand  that  your  I 
Chamber  of  Commerce  here  in  In- 
dianapolis is  working  now  upon  the 
motto,  "If  you  are  going  to  buy  it,  buy 
it  now.”  That  is  a perfectly  safe 
maxim  to  act  on.  It  is  just  as  safe  to  ! 
buy  it  now  as  it  ever  will  be,  and  if  you 
start  the  buying  there  will  be  no  end 
to  it,  and  you  will  be  a seller  as  well 
as  a buyer,  I am  Just  as  sure  of  that 
as  I can  be,  because  I have  taken 
counsel  with  the  men  who  know.  1 1 


never  was  in  business  and,  therefore, 
I have  none  of  the  prejudices  of  busi- 
ness. I have  looked  on  and  tried  to 
i see  what  the  interests  of  the  country 
were  in  business;  I have  taken  counsel 
with  men  who  did  know,  and  their 
counsel  is  uniform,  that  all  that  is 
needed  in  America  now  is  to  believe 
in  the  future;  and  I can  assure  you  as 
one  of  those  who  speak  for  the  Demo- 
cratic party  that  it  is  perfectly  safe  to 
believe  in  the  future.  We  are  so  much 
the  friends  of  business  that  we  were 
for  a little  time  the  enemies  of  those 
who  Were  trying  to  control  business. 
I say  “for  a little  time”  because  we  are 
now  reconciled  to  them.  They  had 
graciously  admitted  that  we  had  a 
right  to  do  what  we  did  do,  and  they 
have  very  handsomely  said  that  they 
were  going  to  play  the  game. 

I believe — I always  have  believed — ■ 
that  American  business  men  were  ab- 
solutely sound  at  heart,  but  men  im- 
mersed in  business  do  a lot  of  things 
that  opportunity  offers  which  in  other 
circumstances  they  would  not  do;  and 
I have  thought  all  along  that  all  that 
was  necessary  to  do  was  to  call  their 
attention  sharply  to  the  kind  of  re- 
forms in  business  which  were  heeded 
and  that  they  would  acquiesce.  Why, 
I believe  they  have  heartily  ac- 
quiesced. There  is  all  the  more  reason, 
therefore,  that,  great  and  small,  we 
Should  be  confident  in  the  future. 

And  what  a future  it  is,  my  friends! 
Look  abroad  upon  the  troubled  world! 
Among  all  the  great  powers  of  the 


world  only  America  saving  her  power 
for  her  own  people!  Only  America 
using  her  great  character  and  her 
great  strength  in  the  interests  of 
peace  and  of  prosperity!  Do  you  not 
think  it  likely  that  the  world  will 
some  time  turn  to  America  and  say, 
“You  were  right  and  we  were  wrong. 
You  kept  your  head  when  we  lost 
ours.  You  tried  to  keep  the  scale  from 
tipping,  and  we  threw  the  whole 
weight  of  arms  in  one  side  of  the 
scale.  Now,  in  your  self-possession,  in 
your  coolness,  in  your  strength,  may 
we  nob  turn  to  you  for  counsel  and 
for  assistance?”  Think  of  the  deep- 
wrought  destruction  of  economic  re- 
sources, of  life,  and  of  hope  that  is 
taking  place  in  some  parts  of  the 
world,  and  think  of  the  reservoir  of 
hope,  the  reservoir  of  energy,  the  res- 
ervoir of  sustenance  that  there  is  in 
this  great  land  of  plenty!  May  we  not 
look  forward  to  the  time  when  we 
shall  be  called  blessed  among  the 
nations,  because  we  succored  the  na- 
tions of  the  world  in  their  time  of  dis- 
tress and  of  dismay?  I for  One  pray 
God  that  that  solemn  hour  may  come, 
and  I know  the  solidity  of  character 
and  I know  the  exaltation  of  hope,  I 
know  the  big  principle  with  which  the 
American  people  will  respond  to  the 
call  of  the  world  for  this  service,  f 
thank  God  that  those  who  believe  in 
America,  who  try  to  serve  her  people, 
are  likely  to  be  also  what  America 
herself  from  the  first  hoped  and 
meant  to  be — the  servant  of  mankind. 


" MESSAGE  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


RETURNING  TO  THE 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  WITHOUT  APPROVAL 

H.  R.  6060 

AN  ACT  TO  REGULATE  THE  IMMIGRATION  OF  ALIENS  TO 
AND  THE  RESIDENCE  OF  ALIENS  IN 
' THE  UNITED  STATES 

JANUARY  28,  1915 


} 

l 


O the  House  of  Representatives 
— It  is  with  unaffected  re- 
gret that  I find  myself  con- 
strained by  clear  conviction 
to  return  this  bill  (H.  R. 
6060,  "An  act  to  regulate  the  immi- 
gration of  aliens  to  and  the  residence 
of  aliens  in  the  United  States”)  with- 
out my  signature.  Not  only  do  I feel 
it  to  be  a very  serious  matter  to  exer- 
cise the  power  of  veto  in  any  case,  be- 
cause it  involves  opposing  the  single 
judgment  of  the  President  to  the  judg- 
ment of  a majority  of  both  the  Houses 
of  the  Congress,  a step  which  no  man 
who  realizes  his  own  liability  to  error 
can  take  without  great  hesitation,  but 
also  because  this  particular  bill  is  in 
so  many  important  respects  admirable, 
well  conceived,  and  desirable.  Its  en- 
actment into  law  would  undoubtedly 
enhance  the  efficiency  and  Improve  the 
methods  of  hadling  the  important 
branch  of  the  public  service  to  which 
it  relates.  But  candor  and  a sense  of 
duty  with  regard  to  the  responsibility 
so  clearly  imposed  upon  me  by  the 
Constitution  in  matters  of  legislation 
leave  me  no  choice  but  to  dissent. 

In  two  particulars  of  vital  conse- 
quence this  bill  embodies  a radical 
departure  from  the  traditional  and 


1 

long-established  policy  of  this  coun- 
try, a policy  in  which  our  people  have 
conceived  the  very  character  of  their 
Government  to  be  expressed,  the  very 
mission  and  spirit  of  the  nation  in 
respect  of  its  relations  to  the  peoples 
of  the  world  outside  their  borders.  Iu 
seeks  to  all  but  close  entirely  the  gates 
of  asylum  which  have  always  been 
open  to  those  who  could  find  nowhere 
else  the  right  and  opportunity  of  con- 
stitutional agitation  for  what  thqy 
conceived  to  be  the  natural  and  in- 
alienable rights  of  men;  and  it  ex- 
cludes those  to  whom  the  opportuni- 
ties of  elementary  education  have  been 
denied,  without  regard  to  thei-r  char- 
acter, their  purposes,  or  their  natural 
capacity. 

Restrictions  like  these,  adopted 
earlier  in  our  history  as  a nation, 
would  very  materially  have  altered 
the  course  and  cooled  the  humane 
ardors  of  our  politics.  The  right  of 
political  asylum  has  brought  to  this 
country  many  a man  of  noble  char- 
acter and  elevated  purpose  who  was 
marked  as  an  outlaw  in  his  own  less 
fortunate  land,  and  who  has  yet  be- 
come an  ornament  to  oyr  citizenship 
and  to  our  public  councils.  The  chil- 
dren and  the  compariots  of  these 
illustrious  Americans  must  stand 
afm&KGd  to  see  the  representatives 


r 32 


Eagle  Library — SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


their  nation  now  resolved,  in  the  full- 
ness of  our  national  strength  and  at 
the  maturity  of  our  great  institutions, 
to  risk  turning  such  men  back  from 
our  shores  without  test  of  quality  or 
purpose.  It  is  difficult  for  me  to  be- 
lieve that  the  full  effect  of  this  feature 
of  the  bill  was  realized  when  it  was 
framed  and  adopted,  and  it  is  im- 
possible for  me  to  assent  to  it  in  the 
form  in  which  it  is  here  cast. 

The  literacy  test  and  the  tests  and 
restrictions  which  accompany  it  con- 
stitute an  even  more  radical  change 
in  the  policy  of  the  nation.  Hitherto 
we  have  generously  kept  our  doors 
open  to  all  who  were  not  unfitted  by 
reason  of  disease  or  incapacity  for 
self-support  or  such  personal  records 
and  antecedents  as  were  likely  to 
make  them  a menace  to  our  peace 
and  order  or  to  the  wholesome  and 
essential  relationships  of  life.  In  this 
bill  it  is  proposed  to  turn  away  from 
tests  of  character  and  of  quality  and 
impose  tests  which  exclude  and  re. 
strict;  for  the  new  tests  here  embodied 
are  not  tests  of  quality  or  of  char- 
acter or  of  personal  fitness,  but  tests 
of  opportunity.  Those  who  come  seek- 
ing opportunity  are  not  to  be  ad- 
mitted unless  they  have  already  had 
one  of  the  chief  of  the  opportunities 
they  seek,  the  opportunity  of  educa- 
tion. The  object  of  such  provisions  is 
restriction,  not  selection. 

If  the  people  of  this  country  have 


made  up  their  minds  to  limit  the  num- 
ber of  immigrants  by  arbitrary  tests 
and  so  reverse  the  policy  of  all  the 
generations  of  Americans  that  have 
gone  before  them,  it  is  their  right  to 
do  so.  I am  their  servant  and  have  no 
license  to  stand  in  their  way.  But  I do 
not  believe  that  they  have.  I respect- 
fully submit  that  no  one  can  quote 
their  mandate  to  that  effect.  Has  any 
political  party  ever  avowed  a policy  of 
restriction  in  this  fundamental  matter, 
gone  to  the  country  on  it,  and  been 
commissioned  to  control  its  legisla- 
tion? Does  this  bill  rest  upon  the  con- 
scious and  universal  assent  and  desire 
of  the  American  people?  I doubt  it. 
It  is  because  I doubt  it  that  I make 
bold  to  dissent  from  it.  I am  willing 
to  abide  by  the  verdict,  but  not  until  it 
has  been  rendered.  Let  the  platforms 
of  parties  speak  out  upon  this  policy 
and  the  people  pronounce  their  wish. 
The  matter  is  too  fundamental  to  be 
settled  otherwise. 

I have  no  pride  of  opinion  in  this 
question.  I am  not  foolish  enough  to 
profess  to  know  the  wishes  and  ideals 
of  America  better  than  the  body  of 
her  chosen  representatives  know 
them.  I only  want  instruction  direct 
from  those  whose  fortunes,  with  ours 
and  all  men’s,  are  involved. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

The  White  House,  January  28,  1916. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  I 

AT  THE 

MID-YEAR  CONFERENCE  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  ELECTRIC  RAILWAY  ASSOCIATION 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  JANUARY  29,  1915 

' * 


R.  PRESIDENT,  Lrdies  and 
Gentlemen — It  is  a real  pleas- 
ure to  me  to  be  here  and  to 
look  this  company  in  the  face. 
I know  how  important  the  in- 
terests that  you  represent  are.  I know 
that  they  represent  some  of  the  chief 
channels  through  which  the  vigor  and 
activity  of  the  nation  flow.  I am  also 
very  glad,  indeed,  to  have  you  come 
and  look  at  some  portion,  at  any  rate, 
of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States.  Many  things  are  reported  and 
supposed  about  that  Government,  and 
it  is  thoroughly  worth  your  while  to 
;ome  and  see  for  yourselves. 

I have  always  maintained  that  the 
only  way  in  which  men  could  under- 
stand one  another  was  by  meeting  one 
another.  If  I believed  all  that  I read 
in  the  newspapers,  I would  not  under- 
stand anybody.  I have  met  many  pien 
whose  horns  dropped  away  the  mo- 
ment I was  permitted  to  examine  their 
heads.  For,  after  all,  in  a vast  country 
like  this  the  most  difficult  thing  is  a 
common  understanding.  We  are  con- 
stantly forming  get-together  associa- 
tions, and  I sometimes  think  that  we 
make  the  mistake  of  confining  those 
associations  in  their  membership  to 
(those  who  are  interested  only  in  some 
Vie  particular  group  of  the  various  in- 
dustries of  the  country.  The  important 
thing  is  for  the  different  enterprises 


of  the  country  to  understand  one  an- 
other; and  the  most  important  thing 
of  all  is  for  us  to  comprehend  our  life 
as  a nation  and  understand  each  other 
as  fellow  citizens. 

It  seems  to  me  that  I can  say  with 
a good  deal  of  confidence  that  we  are 
upon  the  eve  of  a new  era  of  enter- 
prise and  of  prosperity.  Enterprise 
has  been  checked  in  this  country  for 
almost  twejity  years,  because  men 
were  moving  amongst  a maze  of  in- 
terrogation points.  They  did  not  know 
what  was  going  to  happen  to  them. 
All  sorts  of  regulations  were  proposed, 
and  it  wras  a matter  of  uncertainty 
what  sort  of  regulation  was  going  to 
be  adopted.  All  sorts  of  charges  were 
made  against  business,  as  If  business 
were  at  default,  when  most  men  knew 
that  the  great  majority  of  business 
men  were  honest,  were  public-spirited, 
were  intending  the  right  thing,  and 
the  many  were  made  afraid  because 
the  few  did  not  do  what  was  right. 

The  most  necessary  thing,  therefore, 
was  for  us  to  agree,  as  we  did  by  slow 
stages  agree,  upon  the  main  particu- 
lai*s  of  what  ought  not  to  be  done  and 
then  to  put  our  laws  in  such  shape  as 
to  correspond  with  that  general  judg- 
ment. That,  I say,  was  a necessary 
preliminary  not  only  to  a common  un- 
derstanding, but  also  to  a universal 
co-operation.  The  great  forces  of  a 
country  like  this  can  not  pull  separ- 
ately; they  have  got  to  pull  together. 


And  except  upon  a basis  of  common 
understanding  as  to  the  law  and  as  to 
the  proprieties  of  conduct,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  pull  together.  I,  for  one,  have 
never  doubted  that  all  America  was  of 
one  principle.  I have  never  doubted 
that  all  America  believed  in  doing 
what  was  fair  and  honorable  and  of 
good  report.  But  the  method,  the 
method  of  control  by  law  against  the 
small  minority  that  was  recalcitrant 
against  these  principles,  was  a thing 
that  it  was  difficult  to  determine  upon; 
and  it  was  a very  great  burden,  let  me 
say,  to  fall  upon  a particular  adminis- 
tration of  this  Government  to  have  to 
undertake  practically  the  whole  busi- 
ness of  final  definition.  That  is  what 
has  been  attempted  by  the  Congress 
now  about  to  come  to  a close.  It  has  at- 
tempted the  definitions  for  which  the 
country  had  been  getting  ready,  or 
trying  to  get  ready,  for  half  a genera- 
tion. It  will  require  a period  of  test  to 
determine  whether  they  have  success- 
fully defined  them  or  not;  but  no  one 
needs  to  have  it  proved  to  him  that  it 
was  necessary  to  define  them  and  re- 
move the  uncertainties,  and  that,  the 
uncertainties  being  removed,  common 
understandings  are  possible  and  a uni- 
versal co-operation. 

You,  gentlemen,  representing  these 
arteries  of  which  I have  spoken,  that 
serve  to  release  the  forces  of  commu- 
nities and  serve,  also,  to  bind  commu- 
nity with  community,  are  surely  in  a 
better  position  than  the  men  perhaps 
of  any  other  profession  to  understand 
how  communities  constitute  . units — ■ 
how  even  a nation  constitutes  a unit; 
and  that  what  is  detrimental  and  hurt- 
ful to  a part  you,  above  all  men, 
ought  to  know  is  detrimental  to  all. 
You  cannot  demoralize  some  of  the 
forces  of  a community  without  being 
in  danger  of  demoralizing  all  the 
forces  of  a community.  Your  interest 
is  not  in  the  congestion  of  life,  but  in 
the  release  of  li£e.  Your  interest  is  not 
in  isolation,  but  in  union,  the  union  of 
parts  of  this  great  country,  so  that 
every  energy  in  those  parts  will  flow 
freely  and  with  full  force  from  county 
to  county  throughout  the  whole  na- 
tion. 

What  I have  come  to  speak  of  this 
afternoon  is  this  unity  of  our  interest, 
and  I want  to  make  some — I will  not 
say  “predictions,”  but  to  use  a less 
dangerous  though  bigger  word — prog- 
nostications. I understand  that  there 
Is  among  the  medical  profession  diag- 
nosis and  prognosis.  I dare  say  the 
prognosis  is  more  difficult  than  the  di- 
agnosis, since  it  has  to  come  first;  and 
not  being  a physician,  I have  all  the 
greater  courage  in  the  prognosis.  I 
have  noticed  all  my  life  that  I could 
speak  with  the  greatest  freedom  about 
those  things  that  I did  not  understand; 
but  there  are  some  things  that  a man 
is  bound  to  try  to  think  out  whether 
he  fully  comprehends  them  or  not.  The 
thought  of  no  single  man  can  com- 
prehend the  life  of  a great  Nation  like 
this,  and  yet  men  in  public  life  upon 
whom  the  burden  of  guidance  is  laid 
must  attempt  to  comprehend  as  much 
of  it  as  they  can.  Their  strength  will 
lie  in  common  counsel;  their  strength 
will  lie  in  taking  counsel  of  as  many 
informed  persons  as  possible  in  each 
department  with  which  they  have  to 
deal;  but  some  time  or  other  the  point 
will  come  when  they  have  to  make  a 
decision  based  upon  a prognosis.  We 
have  had  to  do  that  In  attempting  the 
definitions  of  law  which  have  been  at- 
tempted by  this  Congress,  and  now  it 
is  necessary  for  us,  in  order  to  go  for- 
ward with  the  confident  spirit  with 
which  I believe  we  can  go  forward,  to  \ 
look  ahead  and  see  the  things  that  are 
likely  to  happen. 

In  the  first  place,  I feel  that  the 
mists  and  mlasmio  airs  of  suspicion 
that  have  filled  the  business  world 
have  now  been  blown  away.  I believe  | 
that  we  have  era  p< 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


33  1 


plclon  and  have  come  into  the  era  of 
confidence.  Knowing  the  elements  we 
have  to  deal  with,  we  can  deal  with 
them;  and  with  that  confidence  of 
knowledge  we  can  have  confidence  of 
enterprise.  That  enterprise  is  going  to 
mean  this:  Nobody  is  henceforth  going 
to  be  afraid  of  or  suspicious  of  any 
business  merely  because  it  is  big.  If 
my  judgment  is  correct,  nobody  has 
been  suspicious  of  any  business  merely 
because  it  was  big;  but  they  have  been 
suspicious  whenever  they  thought  that 
the  bigness  was  being  used  to  take  an 
unfair  advantage.  We  all  have  to  ad- 
mit that  it  is  easier  for  a big  fellow  to 
take  advantage  of  you  than  for  a little 
fellow  to  take  advantage  of  you;  there- 
fore, we  instinctively  watch  the  big 
fellow  with  a little  closer  scrutiny  than 
we  watch  the  little  fellow.  But,  bond 
having  been  given  for  the  big  fellow, 
we  can  sleep  o’  nights.  Bond  having 
been  given  that  he  will  keep  the  peace, 
we  do  not  have  to  spend  our  time  and 
waste  our  energy  watching  him.  The 
conditions  of  confidence  being  estab- 
lished, nobody  need  think  that  if  he 
is  taller  than  the  rest  anybody  is  going 
to  throw  a stone  at  him  simply  because 
he  is  a favorable  target — always  pro- 
vided there  is  fair  dealing  and  real 
eervice. 

Because  the  characteristic  of  mod- 
ern business,  gentlemen,  is  this:  The 
number  of  cases  in  which  men  do 
business  on  their  own  individual,  pri- 
vate capital  is  relatively  small  in  our 
day.  Almost  all  the  greater  enterprises 
are  done  on  what  is,  so  far  as  the  man- 
agers of  that  business  are  concerned, 
other  people’s  money.  That  is  what  a 
Joint  stock  company  means.  It  means, 
“Won’t  you  lend  us  your  resources  to 
conduct  this  business  and  trust  us,  a 
little  group  of  managers,  to  see  that 
you  get  honest  and  proper  returns  for 
your  money?”  and  no  man  who  man- 
ages a joint  stock  company  can  know 
for  many  days  together,  without  fresh 
Inquiry,  who  his  partners  are,  because 
the  stock  is  constantly  changing  hands, 
and  the  partners  are  seldom  the  same 
people  for  long  periods  together. 
Which  amounts  to  saying  that,  inas- 
much as  you  are  using  the  money  of 
everybody  who  chooses  to  come  in, 
your  responsibility  is  to  everybody 
who  has  come  in  or  who  may  come  in. 
That  is  simply  another  way  of  saying 
that  your  business  is,  so  far  forth,  a 
public  business,  and  you  owe  it  to  the 
public  to  take  them  into  your  confi- 
dence in  regard  to  the  way  in  which  it 
is  conducted. 

The  era  of  private  business  in  the 
sense  of  business  conducted  with  the 
money  of  the  partners — I mean  of  the 
managing  partners — is  practically 
passed,  not  only  in  this  country,  but 
almost  everywhere.  Therefore,  almost 
all  business  has  this  direct  responsi- 
bility to  the  public  in  general:  We  owe 
a constant  report  to  the  public,  whose 
money  we  are  constantly  asking  for 
in  order  to  conduct  the  business 
Itself.  Therefore,  we  have  got  to  trade 
not  only  on  our  efficiency,  not  only  on 
the  service  that  we  render,  but  on  the 
confidence  that  we  cultivate.  There  is 
a new  atmosphere  for  business.  The 
oxygen  that  the  lungs  of  modern  busi- 
ness takes  in  is  the  oxygen  of  the  pub- 
lic confidence,  and  if  you  have  not  got 
that,  your  business  is  essentially  para- 
lyzed and  asphyxiated. 

I take  it  that  we  are  in  a position 
now  to  come  to  a common  understand- 
ing, knowing  that  only  a common  un- 
derstanding will  be  the  stable  basis  of 
business,  and  that  what  we  want  for 
business  hereafter  is  the  same  kind  of 
liberty  that  we  want  for  the  individual. 
The  liberty  of  the  individual  is  limited 
with  the  greatest  sharpness  where  his 
actions  come  into  collision  with  the  in- 
terests of  the  community  he  lives  in. 
My  liberty  consists  in  a sort  of  parole. 
Society  says  to  me,  "You  may  do  what 


is  in  violation  of  the  common  under- 
standing, of  the  public  interest;  then 
your  parole  is  forfeited.  We  will  take 
you  into  custody.  We  will  limit  your 
activities.  We  will  penalize  you  if  you 
use  this  thing  that  you  call  your  lib- 
erty against  our  interest.”  Business 
does  not  want,  and  ought  not  to  ask 
for,  more  liberty  than  the  individual 
has;  and  I have  always  in  my  own 
thought  summed  up  individual  liberty, 
and  business  liberty,  and  every  other 
kind  of  liberty,  in  the  phrase  that  is 
common  in  the  sporting  world,  “A  free 
field  and  no  favor.” 

There  have  been  times — I will  not 
specify  them,  but  there  have  been 
times — when  the  field  looked  free,  but 
when  there  were  favors  received  from 
the  managers  of  the  course;  when 
there  were  advantages  given;  inside 
tracks  accorded;  practices  which 
would  block  the  other  runners;  rules 
which  would  exclude  the  amateur  who 
wanted  to  get  in.  That  may  be  a free 
field,  but  there  is  favor,  there  is  par- 
tiality, there  is  preference,  there  is 
covert  advantage  taken  of  some- 
body, and  while  it  looks  very  well 
from  the  grand  stand,  there  are 
men  whom  you  can  find  who  were 
not  allowed  to  get  in  to  the  track 
and  test  their  powers  against  the 
other  men  who  were  racing  for  the 
honors  of  the  day. 

I think  it  is  a serviceable  figure.  It 
means  this:  That  you  are  not  going  to 
be  barred  from  the  contest  because 
you  are  big  and  strong,  and  you  are 
not  going  to  be  penalized  because  you 
are  big  and  strong,  but  you  are  going 
to  be  made  to  observe  the  rules  of  the 
track  and  not  get  in  anybody’s  way 
except  as  you  can  keep  ahead  of  him 
by  having  more  vigor  and  skill  than 
he  has.  Dhen  we  get  that  under- 
standing, that  we  are  all  sports,  and 
that  we  are  not  going  to  ask  for,  not 
only,  but  we  are  not  going  to  conde- 
scend to  take,  advantage  of  anything 
that  does  not  belong  to  us,  then  the 
atmosphere  will  clear  so  that  it  will 
seem  as  if  the  sun  had  never  shone 
as  it  does  that  day.  It  is  the  spirit  of 
true  sportsmanship  that  ought  to  get 
into  everything,  and  men  who,  when 
they  get  beaten  that  way,  squeal  do 
not  deserve  our  pity. 

Some  men  are  going  to  get  beaten 
because  they  have  not  the  brains; 
they  have  not  the  initiative;  they  have 
not  the  skill;  they  have  not  the 
knowledge;  they  have  not  the  same 
capacity  that  other  men  have.  They 
will  have  to  be  employees;  they  will 
have  to  be  used  where  they  can  be 
used.  We  do  not  need  to  conceal  from 
ourselves  that  there  are  varieties  of 
capacity  in  the  world.  Some  men 
have  heads,  but  they  are  not  partic- 
ularly furnished.  I overheard  two 
men  talking  one  day  about  a third 
man,  and  one  of  them  referred  to  his 
head.  “Head?”  the  other  said, 
“Head?  That  isn’t  a head;  that’s  just 
a knot  the  Almighty  put  there  to  keep 
him  from  raveling  out?”  We  have 
to  admit  that  there  are  such  persons. 
Now,  liberty  does  not  consist  in  fram- 
ing laws  to  put  such  men  at  the  front 
and  demand  that  they  be  allowed  to 
keep  pace  with  the  rest;  because  that 
would  hold  the  whole  process  of  civili- 
zation back.  But  it  does  consist  in 
saying  no  matter  how  featherweight 
the  other  man  is  you  must  not  arbi- 
trarily interfere  with  him;  that  there 
must  be  an  absolutely  free  field  and 
no  favor  to  anybody. 

There  are,  therefore,  I suppose,  cer- 
tain rules  of  the  game.  I will  men- 
tion what  seem  to  me  some  of  them. 
I have  already  mentioned  one  of  them 
by  way  of  illustration.  First  of  all  is 
the  rule  of  publicity;  not  doing  any- 
thing under  cover;  letting  the  public 
know  what  you  are  doing  and  judge  of 
it  according  as  it  is.  There  are  a great 
many  businesses  in  this  country  that 
have  fallen  under  suspicion  because 


you  please  until  you  do  something  that  they  were  so  secretive,  when  there  wasyou  do  for  the  public  &a4 


nothing  to  secrete  that  was  dishonor- 
able. The  minute  I keep  everything  in 
my  pocket  and  will  not  show  anybody 
what  is  there  they  conjecture  what 
may  be  in  my  pocket;  whereas,  if  I 
turn  my  pockets  inside  out  the  con- 
jecture is,  at  any  rate,  dissipated. 
There  is  no  use  inviting  suspicion  by 
secretiveness.  If  a business  is  being 
honorably  done  and  successfully  done, 
you  ought  to  be  pleased  to  turn  it  in- 
side out  and  let  the  people  whom  you 
are  inviting  to  invest  in  it  see  exactly 
how  it  is  done  and  with  what  results. 
Publicity,  which  is  required  in  sport, 
is  required  in  business.  Let’s  see  how 
you  are  running  the  game 

Then,  in  the  second  place,  is  giving 
a full  equivalent  for  the  money  you  re- 
ceive, the  full  equivalent  in  service; 
not  trying  to  skimp  in  the  service  in 
order  to  increase  profits  above  a rea- 
sonable return,  but  trying  to  make 
the  profits  proportioned  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  people  that  you  serve. 
There  isn’t  any  more  solid  foundation 
for  business  than  that.  If  you  thor- 
oughly satisfy  the  people  you  are  serv- 
ing you  are  welcome  to  their  mcfney. 
They  are  not  going  to  grudge  it,  be- 
cause they  will  feel  that  they  are  get- 
ting a quid  pro  quo;  they  are  getting 
something  such  as  was  promised  them 
when  their  money  was  asked  of  them. 

Then,  in  the  third  place,  this  game 
requires  something  more  than  ordi- 
nary sport.  It  requires  a certain  kind 
of  conscience  in  business,  a certain 
feeling  that  we  are,  after  all,  in  this 
world  because  we  are  expected  to 
make  good  according  to  the  standards 
of  the  people  we  live  with.  That, 
after  all,  gentlemen,  is  the  chief  com- 
pulsion that  is  laid  on  all  of  us.  I am 
not  aware  of  being  afraid  of  jail;  I do 
not  feel  uneasy  when  I pass  a peniten- 
tiary; but  I would  feel  extremely  un- 
easy if  I knew  I had  done  something 
which  some  fine,  honorable  friend  of 
mine  would  condemn  if  it  passed  be- 
fore him.  I would  look  carefully  at 
his  eyes  to  see  if  he  suspected  any- 
thing, and  I would  feel  unhappy  until 
I had  made  a clean  breast  of  it  with 
him.  That  is  what  we  are  afraid  of, 
and  that  is  what  we  ought  to  be  afraid 
of.  We  are  sustained  by  the  moral 
judgment  of  honorable  men;  and  there 
isn’t  anything  else  in  this  world  that  I 
know  of  that  is  worth  while.  How 
honors  must  hurt  a man  if  he  feels 
that  they  have  been  achieved  dishon- 
orably! Then  they  are  an  arrow  in. 
his  heart,  not  a quickening  or  a tonic 
to  his  spirit  in  any  respect.  If  he 
feels  that  he  has  cheated  the  people 
who  trusted  him,  then,  no  matter  what 
fortunes  he  piles  up,  they  never  can 
contribute  to  his  peace  of  mind  for  a 
moment.  So  I say  that  conscience  in 
business  is  the  motive  spring  of  the 
whole  thing — the  pride  of  doing  the 
thing  as  it  ought  to  be  done. 

I ask  every  man  in  this  room  who 
employs  other  men  if  he  would  not 
pay  the  best  salary  he  has  if  he  could 
be  assured  that  the  man  he  employed 
was  of  that  quality.  You  know  that 
is  the  sort  of  men  that  you  want,  the 
men  who  will  take  a pride  in  doing 
the  thing  right  and  have  a clean  con- 
science toward  you  who  employ  them. 
Now,  all  of  us  are  employees  of  the 
public.  It  doesn’t  make  any  differ- 
ence what  our  business  is  or  how  small 
'.t  Is,  we  are,  so  far  as  we  get  money 
for  it,  employees  of  the  public;  and 
our  clear,  clean  consciences  toward 
our  employers  are  the  basis  of  our 
success  and,  it  goes  without  sayings 
the  basis  of  our  happiness. 

Then  the  fourth  rule,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  is  the  rule  of  having  the  spirit  of 
service.  I know  a lot  of  cant  is  talked 
about  that,  and  I get  very  sick  of  the 
cant,  as  I dare  say  you  do;  but  when 
I talk  about  the  spirit  of  service  X am 
not  meaning  a sentiment.  I am  not 
meaning  a state  of  mind.  I am  mean- 
ing something  very  concrete — that  you 
want  to  see  to  it  that  the  thing  that 

m©Eejr 


34 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


f or  is  the  best  thing  of  the  kind  that 
can  be  done.  That  is  what  I mean  by 
the  spirit  of  service.  I have  known 
many  a man  who  gave  up  profit  for 
mental  satisfaction.  I know  men  in 
this  city — there  are  men  in  the  scien- 
tific bureaus  of  this  Government 
whom  I could  cite — who  could  make 
very  big  salaries,  but  who  prefer  the 
satisfaction  of  doing  things  that  will 
serve  the  whole  community,  and  doing 
them  just  as  well  as  they  possibly  can 
be  done.  I,  for  one,  am  proud  of  the 
scientific  bureaus  of  this  Government. 
There  are  men  in  them  of  the  most 
self-sacrificing  spirit  and  of  the  high- 
est scientific  efficiency,  who  do  things 
on  a petty  salary  which  some  other  men 
would  not  do  at  all;  for  if  you  have  to 
pay  a man  a salary  to  produce  the 
best  product  of  his  brain  then  he 
scales  the  product  down  to  the  salary. 
Here  are  men  who  scale  the  product 
up  to  the  highest  standards  of  sci- 
entific ideals!  They  have  hitched  their 
wagons  to  a star,  and  the  star  is  apt  to 
lift,  their  names  above  the  names  of 
the  rest  of  us.  So  I say  that  if  your 
earning  capacity  is  the  capacity  to 
earn  public  confidence  you  can  go 
about  your  business  like  freemen.  No- 
body is  going  to  molest  you  and  every- 
body is  going  to  say,  “If  you  earn  big 
profits;  if  you  have  treated  the  people 
from  whom  you  are  making  your  profits 
as  they  ought  to  be  treated;  if  you 
treat  the  employees  whom  you  use  in 
earning  those  profits  as  they  ought  to 
be  treated;  if  your  methods  of  compe- 
tition are  clean  and  above  reproach; 
why,  then,  you  can  pile  those  profits 
as  high  as  the  Rockies  and  nobody 
will  be  jealous  of  it.”  Because  you 
will  have  earned  them  in  a sense  that 
is  the  handsomest  sense  of  all. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  that  we  all  ought 
to  regard  the  laws,  that  we  all  ought 
to  co-operate  in  the  enforcement  of 
the  laws.  Government,  gentlemen,  is 
merely  an  attempt  to  express  the  con- 
science of  everybody,  the  average  con- 
science of  the  Nation,  In  the  rules  that 
everybody  is  commanded  to  obey.  That 
is  all  they  are.  If  the  Government  is 
going  faster  than  the  public  con- 
science it  will  presently  have  to  pull 
up,  If  it  is  not  going  as  fast  as  the 
public  conscience  it  will  presently 
have  to  be  whipped  up.  Because  the 
public  conscience  is  going  to  say,  "We 
want  our  laws  to  express  our  charac- 
ter;" and  our  character  must  have 
this  kind  of  solidity  underneath  it;  the 
moral  judgment  of  right  and  wrong. 
The  only  reason  we  quarrel  with  re- 
formers sometimes  is  because  they  are, 
or  suppose  that  they  are,  a little  more 
enlightened  than  the  rest  of  us,  and 
they  want  us  all  of  a sudden  to  be 
just  as  enlightened  as  they  are,  and 
we  cannot  stand  the  pace,  That  is 
all  that  makes  us  uneasy  about  re- 
formers, If  we  could  get  our  second 
wind,  if  we  could  keep  up  the  pace  as 
long  as  they  do,  we  might  be  able  to 
run  as  fast  as  they  do,  but  we  are 
more  heavily  weighted  with  clay  than 
they  are.  We  cannot  go  as  fast,  And 
we  like  companionship,  We  want  to 
wait  for  the  rest  of  them,  We  do  not 
want  to  be  in  a lonely  advance  climb- 
ing some  heights  of  perfection  where 
there  is  no  good  inn  to  stop  at  over 
night. 

.That,  gentlemen,  is  the  homely  and, 
'i  Tiai-s  say,  obvious  lesson  which  I 
Save  meant  to  give  utterance  to  this 
afternoon.  I think  that  I understand 
what  you  are  after.  I hope  that  you 
understand  what  we  are  after.  All  I 
ask  is  that  if  anything  is  being  done 
that  ought  not  to  be  done  the  fault  in 
it  be  conclusively  pointed  out  and  the 
way  to  correct  the  mistake  be  explic- 
itly shown.  There  is  an  old  rule  that 
ought  to  obtain  in  politics  as  in  every- 
thing else,  and  it  is  expressed  in  a very 
fiomely  way.  It  is  the  rule  of  “Put  up 
pr  shut  up.'f  Someone  said,  "If  you 
wish  me  to  consider  you  witty  I must 


really  trouble  you  to  make  a joke.’’  If 
you  wish  me  to  consider  you  wise  I 
must  really  trouble  you  to  show  the 
concrete  proof;  to  show  how  the  thing 
can  be  done;  to  show  how  it  can  be 
better  done.  Because  nobody  is  fool 
enough  to  suppose  that  the  way  he 
has  determined  that  the  thing  ought 
to  be  done  is  necessarily  the  best  way 
to  do  it.  But  it  is  the  best  way  to  do 
it  until  you  show  a better  way.  That, 
is  a perfectly  obvious  rule.  So,  again, 
I say  it  is  the  rule  of  “Put  up  or  shut 
up.”  And  I do  not  mean  that  in  any 
sort  of  disrespect.  The  market  for 
ideas  is  a highly  competitive  market, 
and  the  rules  of  competition  are  neces- 
sarily fair.  There  is  only  one  test  for 
an  idea  and  that  is,  “Is  it  good?”  You 
may  for  the  time  being  dress  it  with 
such  rhetoric  that  it  will  look  good, 
and  the  best  thing  that  characterizes 
countries  like  our  own  is  that  every 
man  who  has  an  idea  is  constantly  in- 


vited to  the  platform.  There  is  noth- 
ing better  for  an  idea  by  way  of  test 
than  exposure  to  the  atmosphere.  If 
you  let  enough  people  hear  it  stated 
often  enough  it  will  certainly  seek  its 
proper  level. 

That  is  the  reason  I believe  in  free 
speech.  I have  been  subjected  to  free 
speech  myself,  and  it  is  hard  to  endure 
sometimes,  because  the  office  of  the 
President  seems  to  be  the  clearing 
house  for  original  ideas.  I am  brought 
more  original  ideas  per  dietn,  I dare 
say,  than  any  other  person  in  the 
country,  and,  therefore,  pay  the  pen- 
alty of  freedom  of  speech.  Perhaps 
my  mind  does  not  register  original 
ideas  readily  enough,  because  some  of 
them  do  not  register  at  all.  I am  per- 
fectly willing  to  admit  that  that  is  the 
fault  of  the  register,  not  the  fault  of 
the  idea.  All  I have  to  say  to  you  is 
that  if  you  have  ideas  the  register  ia 
entirely  at  your  service. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

BEFORE 

THE  UNITED  STATES  CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  FEBRUARY  3,  1915 


R.  PRESIDENT,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen — I feel  that  it  is 
hardly  fair  to  you  for  me  to 
come  in  in  this  casual 
fashion  among  a body  of 
men  who  have  been  seriously  dis- 
cussing great  questions,  and  it  is 
hardly  fair  to  me,  because  I come  in 
cold,  not  having  had  the  advantage 
of  sharing  the  atmosphere  of  your  de- 
liberations and  catching  the  feeling 
of  your  conference.  Moreover,  I 
hardly  know  just  how  to  express  my 
interest  in  the  things  you  are  under- 
taking, When  a man  stands  outside 
an  organization  and  speaks  to  it  he 
is  too  apt  to  have  the  tone  of  outside 
commendation,  as  who  should  say,  “I 
would  desire  to  pat  you  on  the  back 
and  say,  'Good  boys;  you  are  doing 
well!'  " I would  a great  deal  rather 
haye  you  receive  mo  as  if  for  the  time 
being  I were  one  of  your  own  number, 
Because  the  longer  I occupy  the  of- 
fice that  I now  occupy  the  more  I re- 
gret any  lines  of  separation;  the  more 
I deplore  any  feeling  that  one  set  of 
men  has  one  set  of  interests  and  an- 
other set  of  men  another  set  of  inter- 
ests; the  more  I feel  the  solidarity  of 
the  Nation — the  impossibility  of  sepa- 
rating one  interest  from  another  with- 
out misconceiving  it;  the  necessity 
that  we  should  all  understand  one  an- 
other in  order  that  we  may  under- 
stand ourselves, 

There  is  an  illustration  which  I have 
used  a great  many  times,  I will  use 
it  again,  because  it  is  the  most  service- 
able to  my  own  mind,  We  often  speak 
of  a man  who  cannot  find  his  way  in 
some  jungle  or  some  dese :,t  as  having 
“lost  himself.”  Did  you  ever  reflect 
that  that  is  the  only  thing  he  has  not 
lost?  He  is  there.  He  has  lost  the 
rest  of  the  world,  He  has  no  fixed 
point  by  which  to  steer.  He  does  not 
know  which  is  north,  which  is  south, 


which  is  east,  which  is  west;  and  if 
he  did  know,  he  is  so  confused  that  he 
would  not  know  in  which  of  those  di- 
rections his  goal  lay.  Therefore,  fol- 
lowing his  heart,  he  walks  in  a great 
circle  from  right  to  left  and  comes 
back  to  where  he  started — to  himself 
again.  To  my  mind  that  is  a picture 
of  the  world.  If  you  have  lost  sight 
of  other  interests  and  do  not  know  the 
relation  of  your  own  interests  to  those 
other  interests,  then  you  do  not  under- 
stand your  own  interests,  and  have  lost 
yourself.  What  you  want  is  orienta- 
tion, relationship  to  the  points  of  the 
compass;  relationship  to  the  other  peo- 
ple in  the  world;  vital  connections 
which  you  have  for  the  time  being 
severed. 

I am  particularly  glad  to  express  my 
admiration  for  the  kind  of  organiza- 
tion which  you  have  drawn  together. 
I have  attended  banquets  of  chambers 
of  commerce  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  and  have  got  the  impression 
at  each  of  those  banquets  that  there 
was  only  one  city  in  the  country.  It 
has  seemed  to  me  that  those  associa- 
tions were  meant  in  order  to  destroy 
men’s  perspective,  in  order  to  destroy 
their  sense  of  relative  proportions. 
Worst  of  all,  if  I may  be  permitted  to 
say  so,  they  were  intended  to  boost 
something  in  particular.  Boosting  is  a 
very  unhandsome  thing.  Advancing 
enterprise  is  a very  handsome  thing, 
but  io  exaggerate  local  merits  in  order 
to  create  disproportion  in  the  general 
development  is  not  a particularly 
handsome  thing  or  a particularly  in- 
telligent thing,  A city  cannot  grow  on 
the  face  of  a great  State  like  a mush- 
room on  that  one  spot,  Its  roots  are 
throughout  the  State,  and  unless  the 
State  it  is  in,  or  the  region  it  draws 
from,  can  itself  thrive  and  pulse  with 
life  as  a whole,  the  city  can  have  no 
healthy  growth.  You  forget  the  wide 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


35  ^ 


rootages  of  everything  when  you  boost 
some  particular  region.  There  are 
dangers  which  probably  you  all  un- 
derstand In  the  mere  practice  of  ad- 
vertisement. When  a man  begins  to 
advertise  himself  there  are  certain 
points  that  are  somewhat  exaggerated, 
and  I have  noticed  that  men  who  ex- 
aggerate most,  most  quickly  lose  any 
proper  conception  of  what  their  own 
proportions  ar§.  Therefore,  these  lo- 
cal centers  of  enthusiasm  may  be  lo- 
cal centers  of  mistake  if  they  are  not 
very  wisely  guided  and  if  they  do  not 
themselves  realize  their  relations  to 
the  other  centers  of  enthusiasm  and 
of  advancement. 

The  advantage  about  a Chamber  of 
Commerce  of  the  United  States  is  that 
there  is  only  one  way  to  boost  the 
United  States,  and  that  is  by  seeing 
to  it  that  the  conditions  under  which 
business  is  done  throughout  the  whole 
country  are  the  best  possible  condi- 
tions. There  cannot  be  any  dispropor- 
tion about  that.  If  you  draw  your  sap 
and  your  vitality  from  all  quarters, 
then  the  more  sap  and  vitality  there 
Is  in  you  the  more  there  is  in  the  com- 
monwealth as  a whole,  and  every  time 
you  lift  at  all  you  lift  the  whole  level 
of  manufacturing  and  mercantile  en- 
terprise. Moreover,  the  advantage  of 
it  is  that  you  cannot  boost  the  United 
States  in  that  way  without  understand- 
ing the  United  States.  You  learn  a 
great  deal.  I agreed  with  a colleague 
of  mine  in  the  Cabinet  the  other  day 
that  we  had  never  attended  in  our 
lives  belore  a school  to  compare  with 
that  we  were  now  attending  for  the 
purpose  of  gaining  a liberal  educa- 
tion. 

Of  course,  I learn  a great  many 
things  that  are  not  so,  but  the  in- 
teresting thing  about  that  is  this: 
Things  that  are  not  so  do  not  match. 
If  you  hear  enough  of  them,  you  see 
there  is  no  pattern  whatever;  it  is  a 
crazy  quilt.  Whereas,  the  truth  always 
matches,  piece  by  piece,  with  other 
parts  of  the  truth.  No  man  can  lie 
consistently,  and  he  cannot  lie  about 
everything  if  he  talks  to  you  long.  I 
would  guarantee  that  if  enough  liars 
talked  to  you,  you  would  get  the  truth; 
because  the  parts  that  they  did  not  in- 
vent would  match  one  another,  and 
the  parts  that  they  did  invent  would 
not  match  one  another.  Talk  long 
enough,  therefore,  and  see  the  con- 
nections clearly  enough,  and  you  can 
patch  together  the  case  as  a whole.  I 
had  somewhat  that  experience  about 
Mexico,  and  that  was  about  the  only 
way  in  which  I learned  anything  that 
was  true  about  it.  For  there  had  been 
vivid  imaginations  and  many  special 
interests  which  depicted  things  as  they 
wished  me  to  believe  them  to  be. 

Seriously,  the  task  of  this  body  is  to 
match  all  the  facts  of  business 
throughout  the  country  and  to  see  the 
vast  and  consistent  pattern  of  it.  That 
is  the  reason  I think  you  are  to  be  con- 
gratulated upon  the  fact  that  you 
cannot  do  this  thing  without  common 
counsel.  There  isn’t  any  man  who 
.knows  enough  to  comprehend  the 
United  States.  It  is  a co-operative  ef- 
fort, necessarily.  You  cannot  per- 
form the  functions  of  this  Chamber  of 
Commerce  without  drawing  in  not 
only  a vast  number  of  men,  but  men, 
and  a number  of  men,  from  every  re- 
gion and  section  of  the  country.  The 
minute  this  association  falls  into  the 
hands,  if  it  ever  should,  of  men  from 
a single  section  or  men  with  a single 
set  of  interests  most  at  heart,  it  will 
go  to  seed  and  die.  Its  strength  must 
come  from  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
land  and  must  be  compounded  of 
brains  and  comprehensions  of  every 
sort.  It  is  a very  noble  and  handsome 
picture  for  the  imagination,  and  I 
have  asked  myself  before  I came  here 


today  what  relation  you  could  bear 
to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  and  what  relation  the  Govern- 
ment could  bear  to  you? 

There  are  two  aspects  and  activities 
of  the  Government  with  which  you  will 
naturally  come  into  most  direct  con- 
tact. The  first  is  the  Government’s 
power  of  inquiry,  systematic  and  dis- 
interested inquiry,  and  its  power  of 
scientific  assistance.  You  get  an  illus- 
tration of  the  latter,  for  example,  in 
the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Has 
it  occurred  to  you,  I wonder,  that  we 
are  just  upon  the  eve  of  a time  when 
our  Department  of  Agriculture  will 
be  of  infinite  importance  to  the  whole 
world?  There  is  a shortage  of  food  in 
the  world  now.  That  shortage  will  be 
much  more  serious  a few  months  from 
now  than  it  is  now.  It  is  necessary 
that  we  should  plant  a great  deal 
more;  it  is  necessary  that  our  lands 
should  yield  more  per  acre  than  they 
do  now;  it  is  necessary  that  there 
should  not  be  a plow  or  a spade  idle  in 
this  country  if  the  world  is  to  be  fed. 
And  the  methods  of  our  farmers  must 
feed  upon  the  scientific  information 
to  be  derived  from  the  State  depart- 
ments of  agriculture,  and  from  that 
taproot  of  all,  the  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture.  The  object 
and  use  of  that  department  is  to  in- 
form men  of  the  latest  developments 
and  disclosures  of  science  with  regard 
to  all  the  processes  by  which  soils  can 
be  put  to  their  proper  use  and  their 
fertility  made  the  greatest  possible. 
Similarly  with  the  Bureau  of  Stand- 
ards. It  is  ready  to  supply  those  things 
by  which  you  can  set  norms,  you  can 
set  bases,  for  all  the  scientific  pro- 
cesses of  business. 

I have  a great  admiration  for  the 
scientific  parts  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  and  it  has  amazed 
me  that  so  few  men  have  discovered 
them.  Here  in  these  departments  are 
quiet  men,  trained  to  the  highest  de- 
gree of  skill,  serving  for  a petty  re- 
muneration along  line's  that  are  in- 
finitely useful  to  mankind;  and  yet  in 
some  cases  they  waited  to  be  discov- 
ered until  this  Chamber  of  Commerce 
of  the  United  States  was  established. 
Coming  to  this  city,  officers  of  that 
association  found  that  there  were  here 
things  that  were  infinitely  useful  to 
them  and  with  which  the  whole  United 
States  ought  to  be  put  into  communi- 
cation. 

The  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  very  properly  a great  instru- 
mentality of  inquiry  and  information. 
One  thing  we  are  just  beginning  to  do 
that  we  ought  to  have  done  long  ago: 
We  ought  long  ago  to  have  had  our 
Bureau  of  Foreign  and  Domestic 
Commerce.  We  ought  long  ago  to 
have  sent  the  best  eyes  of  the  Govern- 
ment out  into  the  world  to  see  where 
the  opportunities  and  openings  of 
American  commerce  and  American 
genius  were  to  be  found — men  who 
were  not  sent  out  as  the  commercial 
agents  of  any  particular  set  of  busi- 
ness men  in  the  United  States,  but  who 
were  eyes  for  the  whole  business  com- 
munity. I nave  been  reading  consular 
reports  for  twenty  years.  In  what 
I came  to  regard  as  an  evil  day  the 
Congressman  from  my  district  began 
to  send  me  the  consular  reports,  and 
they  ate  up  more  and  more  of  my  time. 
They  are  very  interesting,  but  they  are 
a good  deal  like  what  the  old  lady  said 
of  the  dictionary,  that  it  was  very  in- 
teresting but  a little  disconnected. 
You  get  a picture  of  the  world  as  if  a 
spotlight  were  being  dotted  about  over 
the  surface  of  it.  Here  you  see  a 
glimpse  Of  this,  and  here  you  see  a 
glimpse  of  that,  and  through  the  te- 
dium of  some  consuls  you  do  not  see 
anything  at  all.  Because  the  consul 
has  to  have  eyes  and  the  consul  has 
to  know  what  he  is  looking  for.  A 
literary  friend  of  mine  said  that  he 
used  to  believe  in  the  maxim  that 
“everything  comes  to  the  man  who 


waits,”  but  he  discovered  after  awhile 
by  practical  experience  that  it  needed 
an  additional  clause,  “provided  he 
knows  what  he  is  waiting  for.”  Un- 
less you  know  what  you  are  looking 
for  and  have  trained  eyes  to  see  it 
when  it  comes  your  way,  it  may  pass 
you  unnoticed.  We  are  just  begin- 
ning to  do,  systematically  and  scien- 
tifically, what  we  ought  long  ago  to 
have  done,  to  employ  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  to  survey  the 
world  in  order  that  American  com- 
merce might  be  guided. 

But  there  are  other  ways  of  using 
the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
ways  that  have  long  been  tried,  though 
not  always  with  conspicuous  success  or 
fortunate  results.  You  can  use  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  by 
influencing  its  legislation.  That  has 
been  a very  active  industry,  but  it  has 
not  always  been  managed  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  whole  people.  It  is 
very  instructive  and  useful  for  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  to 
have  such  means  as  you  are 
ready  to  supply  for  getting  a sort  of 
consensus  of  opinion  which  proceeds 
from  no  particlar  quarter  and  orig- 
inates with  no  particular  interest.  In- 
formation is  the  very  foundation  of 
all  right  action  in  legislation. 

I remember  once,  a good  many  years 
ago,  I was  attending  one  of  the  local 
chambers  of  commerce  of  the  United 
States  at  a time  when  everybody  was 
complaining  that  Congress  was  inter- 
fering with  business.  If  you  have 
heard  that  complaint  recently  and 
supposed  that  it  was  original  with  the 
men  who  made  it,  you  have  not  lived 
as  long  as  I have.  It  has  been  going 
on  ever  since  I can  remember.  The 
complaint  came  most  vigorously  from 
men  who  were  interested  in  large 
corporate  development..  I took  the 
liberty  to  say  to  that  body  of  men, 
whom  I did  not  know,  that  I took  it 
for  granted  that  there  were  a great 
many  lawyers  among  them,  and  that 
it  was  likely  that  the  more  prominent 
of  those  lawyers  were  the  intimate 
advisers  of  the  corporations  of  that 
region.  I said  that  I had  met  a great 
many  lawyers  from  whom  the  com- 
plaint had  come  most  vigorously,  not 
only  that  there  was  too  much  legis- 
lation with  regard  to  corporations,  but 
that  it  was  ignorant  legislation,  I said, 
“Now,  the  responsibility  is  with  you. 
If  the  legislation  is  mistaken,  you  are 
on  the  inside  and  know  where  the 
mistakes  are  being  made.  You  know 
not  only  the  innocent  and  right  things 
that  your  corporations  are  doing,  but 
you  know  the  other  things,  too.  Know- 
ing how  they  are  done,  you  can  be 
expert  advisors  as  to  how  the  wrong 
things  can  be  prevented.  If,  there- 
fore, this  thing  is  handled  ignorantly, 
there  is  nobody  to  blame  but  your- 
selves.” If  we  on  the  outside  cannot 
understand  the  thing  and  cannot  get 
advice  from  the  inside,  then  we  will 
have  to  do  it  with  the  flat  hand  and 
not  with  the  touch  of  skill  and  dis- 
crimination. Isn’t  that  true?  Men 
on  the  inside  of  busines  know  how 
business  is  conducted  and  they  can- 
not complain  if  men  on  the  outside 
make  mistakes  about  business  if  they 
do  not  come  from  the  inside  and  give 
the  kind  of  advice  which  is  necessary. 

The  trouble  has  been  that  when 
they  came  in  the  past — for  I think  the 
thing  is  changing  very  rapidly — they 
came  with  all  their  bristles  out;  they 
came  on  the  defensive;  they  came  tv- 
see,  not  what  they  could  accomplish, 
but  what  they  could  prevent.  They 
did  not  come  to  guide;  they  came  to 
block.  That  is  of  no  use  whatever  to 
the  general  body  politic.  What  has 
got  to  pervade  us  like  a great  motive 
power  is  that  we  cannot,  and  must  not, 
separate  our  interests  from  one  an- 
other, but  must  pool  our  interests.  A 
man  who  is  trying  to  fight  for  his  sin- 
gle hand  is  fighting  against  the  com- 
munity and  not  fighting  with  Tfin-f 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


36  ^ 


are  a great  many  dreadful  things 
about  war,  as  nobody  needs  to  be  told 
in  this  day  of  distress  and  of  terror, 
but  there  is  one  thing  about  war  which 
has  a very  splendid  side,  and  that  is 
the  consciousness  that  a whole  nation 
gets  that  they  must  all  act  as  a unit 
for  a common  end.  And  when  peace 
is  as  handsome  as  war  there  will  be 
no  war.  When  men,  I mean,  engage 
in  the  pursuits  of  peace  in  the  same 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  of  consci- 
ous service  of  the  community  with 
which,  at  any  rate,  the  common  sol- 
dier engages  in  war,  then  shall  there 
be  wars  no  more.  You  have  moved 
the  vanguard  for  the  United  States  in 
the  purpose  of  this  association  just  a 
little  nearer  that  ideal.  That  is  the 
reason  I am  here,  because  I believe  it. 

There  is  a specific  matter  about 
which  I,  for  one,  want  your  advice. 
Let  me  say,  if  I may  say  it  without 
disrespect,  that  I do  not  think  you 
are  prepared  to  give  it  right  away. 
You  will  have  to  make  some  rather 
extended  inquiries  before  you  are 
ready  to  give  it.  What  I am  thinking 
of  is  competition  in  foreign  markets 
as  between  the  merchants  of  different 
nations. 

I speak  of  the  subject  with  a certain 
degree  of  hesitation,  because  the  thing 
furthest  from  my  thought  is  taking 
advantage  of  nations  now  disabled 
from  playing  their  full  part  in  that 
competition,  and  seeking  a sudden  sel- 
fish advantage  because  they  are  for 
the  time  being  disabled.  Pray  believe 
me  that  we  ought  to  eliminate  all  that 
thought  from  our  minds  and  consider 
this  matter  as  if  we  and  the  other 
nations  now  at  war  were  in  the  nor- 
mal circumstances  of  commerce. 

There  is  a normal  circumstance  of 
commerce  in  which  we  are  apparently 
at  a disadvantage.  Our  anti-trust  laws 
are  thought  by  some  to  make  it  illegal 
for  merchants  in  the  United  States  to 
form  combinations  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  themselves  in  taking 
advantage  of  the  opportunities  of 
foreign  trade.  That  is  a very  serious 
matter  for  this  reason:  There  are 

nome  corporations,  and  some  firms 
for  all  I know,  whose  business  is 
great  enough  and  whose  resources  are 
abundant  enough  to  enable  them  to 
establish  selling  agencies  in  foreign 
countries;  to  enable  them  to  extend  the 
long  credits  which  in  some  cases  are 
necessary  in  order  to  keep  the  trade  they 
desire;  to  enable  them,  in  other  words, 
to  organize  their  business  in  foreign 
territory  in  a way  which  the  smaller 
man  cannot  afford  to  do.  His  busi- 
ness has  not  grown  big  enough  to  per- 
mit him  to  establish  selling  agencies. 
The  export  commission  merchant,  per- 
haps, taxes  him  a little  too  highly  to 
make  that  an  available  competitive 
means  of  conducting  and  extending  his 
business. 

The  question  arises,  therefore,  how 
are  the  smaller  merchants,  how  are 
the  younger  and  weaker  corporations 
going  to  get  a foothold  as  against  the 
combinations  which  are  permitted  and 
even  encouraged  by  foreign  govern- 
ments in  this  field  of  competition? 
There  are  governments  -which,  as  you 
know,  distinctly  encourage  the  for- 
mation of  great  combinations  in  each 
particular  field  of  commerce  in  order 
to  maintain  selling  agencies  and  to 
extend  long  credits,  and  to  use  and 
maintain  the  machinery  which  is  nec- 
essary for  the  extension  of  business; 
and  American  merchants  feel  that  they 
are  at  a very  considerable  disadvant- 
age in  contending  against  that.  The 
matter  has  been  many  times  brought  to 
my  attention,  and  I have  each  time 
'tispended  judgment.  I want  to  be 

iown  this:  I want  to  be  shown  how 

ch  a combination  can  be  made  and 

nducted  in  a way  which  will  not 
-lose  it  against  the  use  of  everybody 
vho  wants  to  use  it.  A combination 
,ias  a tendency  to  exclude  new  mem- 
bers. When  a group  of  men  get  con- 


trol of  a good  thing,  they  do  not  see 
any  particular  point  in  letting  other 
people  into  the  good  thing.  What  I 
would  like  very  much  to  be  shown, 
therefore,  is  method  of  co-operation 
which  is  not  a method  of  combination. 
Not  that  the  two  words  are  mutually 
exclusive,  but  we  have  come  to  have  a 
special  meaning  attached  to  the  word 
“combination.”  Most  of  our  com- 
binations have  a safety  lock,  and  you 
have  to  know  the  combination  to  get 
in.  I want  to  know  how  these  co- 
operative methods  can  be  adopted  for 
the  benefit  of  everybody  who  wants  to 
use  them,  and  I say  frankly  if  I can 
be  shown  that,  I am  for  them.  If  I 
can  not  be  shown  that,  I am  against 
them.  I hasten  to  add  that  I hope- 
fully expect  I can  be  shown  that. 

You,  as  I have  just  now  intimated, 
probably  can  not  show  it  to  me  off- 
hand, but  by  the  methods  which  you 
have  the  means  of  using  you  certainly 
ought  to  be  able  to  throw  a vast  deal 
of  light  on  the  subject.  Because  the 
minute  you  ask  the  small  merchant, 
the  small  banker,  the  country  man, 
how  he  looks  upon  these  things  and 
how  he  thinks  they  ought  to  be  ar- 
ranged in  order  that  he  can  use  them, 
if  he  is  like  some  of  the  men  in  coun- 
try districts  whom  I know,  he  will 
turn  out  to  have  had  a^good  deal  of 
thought  upon  that  subject  and  to  be 
able  to  make  some  very  interesting 
suggestions  whose  intelligence  and 
comprehensiveness  will  surprise  some 
city  gentlemen  who  think  that  only 
the  cities  understand  the  business  of 
the  country.  As  a matter  of  fact,  you 
do  not  have  time  to  think  in  a city.  It 
takes  time  to  think.  You  can  get 
what  you  call  opinions  by  contagion 
in  a city  and  get  them  very  quickly, 
but  you  do  not  always  know  where 
the  germ  came  from.  And  you  have 
no  scientific  laboratory  method  by 
which  to  determine  whether  it  is  a 
good  germ  or  a bad  germ. 

There  are  thinking  spaces  in  this 
country,  and  some  of  the  thinking 
done  is  very  solid  thinking  indeed,  the 
thinking  of  the  sort  of  men  that  we  all 
love  best,  who  think  for  themselves, 
who  do  not  see  things  as  they  are  told 
to  se«  them,  but  look  at  them  and 
see  them  independently;  who,  if  they 
are  told  they  are  white  when  they  are 
black,  plainly  say  that  they  are  black 
— men  with  eyes  and  with  a courage 
back  of  those  eyes  to  tell  what  they 
see.  The  country  is  full  of  those  men. 
They  have  been  singularly  reticent 
sometimes,  singularly  silent,  but  the 
country  is  full  of  them.  And  what  I re- 
joice in  is  that  you  have  called  them 
into  the  ranks.  For  your  methods  are 
bound  to  be  democratic  in  spite  of 
you.  I do  not  mean  democratic  with 
a big  “D,”  though  I have  a private 
conviction  that  you  cannot  be  demo- 
cratic with  a small  “d”  long  without 
becoming  democratic  with  a big  “D.” 
Still  that  is  just  between  ourselves. 
The  point  is  when  we  have  a con- 
sensus of  opinion,  when  we  have  this 
common  counsel,  then  the  legislative 
processes  of  this  Government  will  be 
infinitely  illuminated. 

I used  to  wonder  when  I was  Gov- 
ernor of  one  of  the  States  of  this 
great  country  where  all  the  bills  came 
from.  Some  of  them  had  a very  pri- 
vate complexion.  I found  upon  in- 
quiry— it  was  easy  to  find — that  prac- 
tically nine-tenths  of  the  bills  that 
were  introduced  had  been  handed  to 
the  members  who  introduced  them  by 
some  constituent  or  theirs,  had  been 
drawn  up  by  some  lawyer  whom  they 
might  or  might  not  know,  and  were 
intended  to  do  something  that  would 
be  beneficial  to  a particular  set  of 
persons.  I do  not  mean,  necessarily, 
beneficial  in  a way  that  would  be  hurt- 
ful to  the  rest;  they  may  have  been 
perfectly  honest,  but  they  came  out  of 
cubby-holes  all  over  the  State.  They 
did  not  come  out  of  public  places 
where  men  had  got  together  and  com- 


pared views.  They  were  not  the  prod- 
ucts of  common  counsel,  but  the 
products  of  private  counsel,  a very 
necessary  process  if  there  is  no  other, 
but  a process  which  it  would  be  a 
very  happy  thing  to  dispense  with  if 
we  could  get  another.  And  the  only 
other  process  is  the  process  of  com- 
mon counsel. 

Some  of  the  happiest  experiences  of 
my  life  have  been  like  this.  We  had 
once  when  I was  president  of  a uni- 
versity to  revise  the  whole  course  of 
study.  Courses  of  study  are  chron- 
ically in  need  of  revision.  A commit- 
tee of,  I believe,  fourteen  men  was 
directed  by  the  faculty  of  the  univer- 
sity 'to  report  a revised  curriculum. 
Naturally,  the  men  who  had  the  most 
ideas  on  the  subject  were  picked  out 
and,  naturally,  each  man  came  with 
a very  definite  notion  of  the  kind  of 
revision  he  wanted,  and  one  of  the 
first  discoveries  we  made  was  that  no 
two  of  us  wanted  exactly  the  same  re- 
vision. I went  in  there  with  all  my 
war  paint  on  to  get  the  revision  I 
wanted,  and  I dare  say,  though  it  was 
perhaps  more  skillfully  concealed,  tl^e 
other  men  had  their  war  paint  on,  too. 
We  discussed  the  matter  for  six 
months.  The  result  was  a report  which 
no  one  of  us  had  conceived  or  fore- 
seen, but  with  which  we  were  all  ab- 
solutely satisfied.  There  was  not  a 
man  who  had  not  learned  in  that 
committee  more  than  he  had  ever 
known  before  about  the  subject,  and 
who  had  not  willingly  revised  his  pre- 
possessions; who  was  not  proud  to 
be  a participant  in  a genuine  piece  of 
common  counsel.  I have  had  several 
experiences  of  that  sort,  and  it  has 
led  me,  whenever  I confer,  to  hold  my 
particular  opinion  provisionally,  as  my 
contribution  to  go  into  the  final  re- 
sult" but  not  to  dominate  the  final  re- 
sult. 

That  is  the  ideal  of  a government 
like  ours,  and  an  interesting  thing  is 
that  if  you  only  talk  about  an  idea  that 
will  not  work  long  enough,  everybody 
will  see  perfectly  plainly  that  it  will 
not  work;  whereas,  if  you  do  not  talk 
about  it,  and  do  -not  have  a great 
many  people  talk  about  it,  you  are  in 
danger  of  having  the  people  who  han- 
dle it  think  that  it  will  work.  Many 
minds  are  necessary  to  compound  a 
workable  method  of  life  in  a various 
and  populous  country;  and  as  I think 
about  the  whole  thing  and  picture  the 
purposes,  the  infinitely  difficult  and 
complex  purposes  which  we  must  con- 
ceive and  carry  out,  not  only  does  it 
minister  to  my  own  modesty,  I hope, 
of  opinion,  but  it  also  fills  me  with 
a very  great  enthusiasm.  It  is  a splen- 
id  thing  to  be  part  of  a great  wide- 
awake nation.  It  is  a splendid  thing  to 
know  that  your  own  strength  is  infi- 
nitely multiplied  by  the  strength  of 
other  men  who  love  the  country  as  you 
do.  It  is  a splendid  thing  to  feel  that 
the  wholesome  blood  of  a great  coun- 
try can  be  united  in  common  purposes, 
and  that  by  frankly  looking  one  an- 
other in  the  face  and  taking  counsel 
with  one  another,  prejudices  will  drop 
away,  handsome  understandings  will 
arise,  a universal  spirit  of  service  will 
be  engendered,  and  that  with  this  in- 
creased sense  of  community  of  pur- 
pose will  come  a vastly  enhanced  in- 
dividual power  of  achievement;  for  we 
will  be  lifted  by  the  whole  mass  of 
which  we  constitute  a part. 

Have  you  never  heard  a great  chorus 
of  trained  voices  lift  the  voice  of  the 
prima  donna  as  if  it  soared  with  easy 
grace  above  the  whole  melodious 
sound?  It  does  not  seem  to  come 
from  the  single  throat  that  produces 
it.  It  seems  as  if  it  were  the  perfect 
accent  and  crown  of  the  great  chorus. 

So  it  ought  to  be  with  the  statesman. 

So  it  ought  to  be  with  every  man  who 
tries  to  guide  the  counsels  of  a great 
nation.  He  should  feel  that  his  voice 
is  lifted  upon  the  chorus  and  that  it  is  1 
only  the  crown  of  the  common  theme.  1 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


87  1 


T' 


( ADDRESS  OF  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


AT  THE 


ASSOCIATED  PRESS  LUNCHEON 

NEW  YORK,  N.  Y.,  APRIL  20,  1915 


• |iR.  PRESIDENT,  Gentlemen  of 
the  Associated  Press,  Ladies 
and  Gentlemen — I am  deeply 
gratified  by  the  generous  re- 
ception you  have  accorded 
me.  It  makes  me  look  back  with  a 
touch  of  regret  to  former  occasions 
when  I have  stood  in  this  place  and 
enjoyed  a greater  liberty  than  is 
granted  me  today.  There  have  been 
times  when  I stood  in  this  spot  and 
said  what  I really  thought,  and  I can 
not  help  praying  that  those  days  of 
indulgence  may  be  accorded  me  again. 
I have  come  here  today,  of  course, 
somewhat  restrained  by  a sense  of  re- 
sponsibility which  I cannot  escape. 
For  I take  the  Associated  Press  very 
seriously.  I know  the  enormous  part 
that  you  play  in  the  affairs  not  only 
of  this  country,  but  of  the  world.  You 
deal  in  the  raw  material  of  opinion 
and,  if  my  convictions  have  any  valid- 
ity. opinion  ultimately  governs  the 
world. 

It  is,  therefore,  of  very  serious 
things  that  I think  as  I face  this  body 
of  men.  I do  not  think  of  you,  how- 
ever, as  members  of  the  Associated 
Press.  I do  not  think  of  you  as  men 
of  different  parties  or  of  different 
racial  derivations  or  of  different  re- 
ligious denominations.  I want  to  talk 
to  you  as  my  fellow  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  for  there  are  serious 
things  which  as  fellow  citizens  we 


us,  gentlemen,  have  been  difficult 
enough;  the  times  before  us  are  likely 


ous  a thought  as  that  we  should  sit  in 
judgment  upon  them — no  nation  is  fit 
to  sit  in  judgment  upon  any  other  na 
tion — but  that  we  shall  some  day  have 
to  assist  in  reconstructing  the  proc- 
esses of  peace.  Our  resources  are  un 
touched;  we  are  more  and  more  be- 
coming by  the  force  of  circumstances 
the  mediating  Nation  of  the  world  in 
respect  of  its  finance.  We  must  make 
up  our  minds  what  are  the  best  things 
to  do  and  what  are  the  best  ways  to 
do  them.  We  must  put  our  money, 
our  energy,  our  enthusiasm,  our  sym- 
pathy into  these  things,  and  we  must 
have  our  judgments  prepared  and  our 
spirits  chastened  against  the  coming 
of  that  day. 

So  that  I am  not  speaking  in  a sel- 
fish spirit  when  I say  that  our  whole 
duty,  for  the  present  at  any  rate,  is 
summed  up  in  this  motto,  “America 
first.”  Let  us  think  of  America  be- 
fore we  think  of  Europe,  in  order 
that  America  may  be  fit  to  be  Eu- 
rope’s friend  when  the  day  of  tested 
friendship  comes.  The  test  of  friend- 
ship is  not  now  sympathy  with  the 
one  side  or  the  other,  but  getting 
ready  to  help  both  sides  when  the 
struggle  is  over.  The  basis  of  neu- 
trality, gentlemen,  is  not  indifference; 
it  is  not  self-interest.  The  basis  of, 
neutrality  is  sympathy  for  mankind 
It  is  fairness,  it  is  good-will,  at  bot 
tom.  It  is  impartiality  of  spirit  and 


of  judgment.  I wish  that  all  of  our 
ought  to  consider.  The  times  behind!  fellow  citizens  could  realize  that. 


{There  is  in  some  quarters  a disposition 
, ; to  create  distempers  in  this  body  pol- 


to  be  more  difficult  still,  because,  ! j(-jc  Men  are  even  uttering  slanders 
whatever  may  be  said  about  the  pres- >j  agajnst  the  United  States,  as  if  to  excite 
ent  condition  of  the  worlds  affairs,  it Jher.  Men  are  saying  that  if  we  should 
is  clear  that  they  are  drawing  rapidly  t0  war  upon  either  side  there  would 
to  a climax,  and  at  the  climax  the  test  *be  a divided  America — an  abominable 
will  come,  not  only  for  the  nations  jnbel  of  ignorance!  America  is  not  all 

of  it  vocal  just  now.  It  is  vocal  in 
spots,  but  I,  for  one,  have  a complete 


engaged  in  the  present  colossal  strug 
gle — it  will  come  to  them,  of  course — 
but  the  test  will  come  for  us  particu- 
larly. 

Do  you  realize  that,  roughly  speak- 
ing, we  are  the  only  great  Nation  at 
present  disengaged?  I am  not  speak- 
ing, of  course,  with  disparagement  of 
the  greatness  of  those  nations  in  Eu- 
rope which  are  not  parties  to  the  pres- 
ent war,  but  I am  thinking  of  their 
close  neighborhood  to  it.  I am  think- 
ing how  their  lives  much  more  than 
ours  touch  the  very  heart  and  stuff  of 
the  business,  whereas  we  have  rolling 
between  us  and  those  bitter  days  across 
the  water  3,000  miles  of  cool  and  silent 
ocean.  Our  atmosphere  is  not  yet 
charged  with  those  disturbing  ele- 
ments which  must  permeate  every  na- 
tion of  Europe.  Therefore,  is  it  not 
likely  that  the  nations  of  the  world 
will  some  day  turn  to  us  for  the  cooler 
assessment  of  the  'dements  engaged? 


and  abiding  faith  in  that  great  body  of 
Americans  who  are  not  standing  up 
and  shouting  and  expressing  their 
opinions  just  now,  but  are  waiting  to 
find  out  and  support  the  duty  of  Amer- 
ica. I am  just  as  sure  of  their  solidity 
and  of  their  loyalty  and  of  their 
unanimity,  if  we  act  justly,  as  I am 
that  the  history  of  this  country  has  at 
every  crisis  and  turning  point  illus- 
trated this  great  lesson. 

We  are  the  mediating  nation  of  the 
world.  I do  not  mean  that  we  under- 
take not  to  mind  our  own  business  and 
mediate  where  other  people  are  quar- 
reling. I mean  the  word  in  a broader 
sense.  We  are  compounded  of  the  na- 
tions of  the  world;  we  mediate  their 
blood,  we  mediate  their  traditions,  we 
mediate  their  sentiments,  their  tastes, 
their  passions;  we  are  ourselves  com- 
pounded of  those  things.  We  are. 


I am  not  now  -thinking  so  preposter- 1 therefore,  able  to  under^t&hfi  all  na* 


tions;  we  are  able  to  understand  them 
in  the  compound,  not  separately,  as 
partisans,  but  unitedly  as  knowing  and 
comprehending  and  embodying  them 
all.  It  is  in  that  sense  that  I mean 
that  America  is  a mediating  nation. 
The  opinion  of  America,  the  action  of 
America,  is  ready  to  turn,  and  free  to 
turn,  in  any  direction.  Did  you  ever 
reflect  upon  how  almost  every  other 
nation  has  through  long  centuries  been 
headed  in  one  direction?  That  is  not 
true  of  the  United  States.  The  United 
States  has  no  racial  momentum.  It 
has  no  history  back  of  it  which  makes 
it  run  all  its  energies  and  all  its  am- 
bitions in  one  particular  direction.  And 
merica  is  particularly  free  in  this, 
hat  she  has  no  hampering  ambitions 
s a world  power.  We  do  not  want  a 
foot  of  anybody’s  territory.  If  we  have 
been  obliged  by  circumstances,  or 
have  considered  ourselves  to  be 
obliged  by  circumstances,  in  the  past, 
to  take  territory  which  we  would  not 
have  thought  of  taking,  I believe  I 
am  right  in  saying  that  we  have  con- 
sidered it  our  duty  to  administer  that 
territory,  not  for  ourselves,  but  for  the 
people  living  in  it,  and  to  put  this 
burden  upon  our  consciences — not  to 
think  that  this  thing  is  ours  for  our 
use,  but  to  regard  ourselves  as  trustees 
of  the  great  business  for  those  to 
whom  it  does  really  belong,  trustees 
ready  to  hand  it  over  to  the  cestui  que 
trust  at  any  time  when  the  business 
seems  to  make  that  possible  and  feasi- 
ble. That  is  what  I mean  by  saying 
we  have  no  hampering  ambitions.  We 
do  not  want  anything  that  does  not 
belong  to  us.  Is  not  a nation  in  that 
position  free  to  serve  other  nations, 
and  is  not  a nation  like  that  ready  to 
form  some  part  of  the  assessing  opin- 
ion of  the  world? 

My  interest  in  the  neutrality  of  the 
United  States  is  not  the  petty  desire 
to  keep  out  of  trouble.  To  judge  by 
my  experience,  I have  never  been  able 
to  keep  out  of  trouble.  I have  never  -rv 
looked  for  it,  but  I have  always  found 
it.  I do  not  want  to  walk  around 
trouble.  If  any  man  wants  a scrap 
that  is  an  interesting  scrap  and  worth 
while,  I am  his  man.  I warn  him  that 
he  is  not  going  to  draw  me  into  the 
scrap  for  his  advertisement,  but  if  he 
is  looking  for  trouble  that  is  the 
trouble  of  men  in  general  and  I can 
help  him  a little,  why,  then,  I am  in 
for  it.  But  I am  interested  in  neu- 
trality because  there  is’  something  so 
much  greater  to  do  than  fight;  there 
is  a distinction  waiting  for  this  nation 
that  no  nation  has  ever  yet  got.  That\ 
is  the  distinction  of  absolute  self-con- 
trol and  self-mastery.  Whom  do  you  \ 
admire  most  among  your  friends?  The  \ 
irritable  man?  The  man  out  of  whom  it 
you  can  get  a “rise”  without  trying?  i 
The  man  who  will  fight  at  the  drop  ■ 
of  the  hat,  whether  he  knows  what  \ 
the  hat  is  dropped  for  or  not?  Don’t 
ou  admire  and  don’t  you  fear.iif  you 
ave  to  contest  with  him,  the  self- 
mastered  man  who  watches-  you  with 
calm  eye  and  comes  in  only  when,  you 
have  carried  the  thing  so  far  that’you 
must  be  disposed  of  ? That  is  the  man 
you  respect.  That  is  the  man  who, 
you  know,  has  at  bottom  a much  more 
fundamental  and  terrible  couragedhan 
the  Irritable,  fighting  man.  Now,  I 


88 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


covet  for  America  this  splendid  cour- 
age of  reserve  moral  force,  and  I 
wanted  to  point  out  to  you  gentlemen 
simply  this: 

This  is  news  and  news.  There  is 
what  is  called  news  from  Turtle  Bay 
that  turns  out  to  be  falsehood,  at  any 
rate  in  what  it  is  said  to  signify,  but 
which,  if  you  could  get  the  nation  to 
believe  it  true,  might  disturb  our  equi- 
librium and  our  self-possession.  We 
ought  not  to  deal  in  stuff  of  that  kind. 
We  ought  not  to  permit  that  sort  of 
thing  to  use  up  the  electrical  energy 
of  the  wires,  because  its  energy  is 
malign,  its  energy  is  not  of  the  truth, 
its  energy  is  of  mischief.  It  is  possible 
to  sift  truth.  I have  known  some 
things  to  go  out  on  the  wires  as  true 
when  there  was  only  one  man  or  one 
group  of  men  who  could  have  told  the 
originators  of  that  report  whether  it 
was  true  or  not,  and  they  were  not 
asked  whether  it  was  true  or  not  for 
fear  it  might  not  be  true.  That  sort 
of  report  ought  not  to  go  out  over  the 
wires.  There  is  generally,  if  not  al- 
ways, somebody  who  knows  whether 
the  thing  is  so  or  not,  and  in  these  days, 
above  all  days,  we  ought  to  take  par- 
ticular pains  to  resort  to  the  one  small 
group  of  men,  or  to  the  one  man  if 
there  be  but  one,  who  knows  whether 
those  things  are  true  or  not.  The 
world  ought  to  know  the  truth;  the 
world  ought  not  at  this  period  of  un- 
stable quilibrium  to  be  disturbed  by 
rumor,  ought  not  to  be  disturbed  by 
imaginative  combinations  of  circum- 
stances, or,  rather,  by  circumstances 
stated  in  combination  which  do  not 
belong  in  combination.  You  gentle- 
men. and  gentlemen  engaged  like  you, 
are  holding  the  balances  in  your  hand. 
This  unstable  equilibrium  rests  upon 
scales  that  are  in  your  hands.  For  the 
food  of  opinion,  as  I began  by  saying, 
is  the  news  of  the  day.  I have  known 
many  a man  to  go  off  at  a tangent  on 
information  that  was  not  reliable.  In- 


deed, that  describes  the  majority  of 
men.  The  world  is  held  stable  by  the 
man  who  waits  for  the  next  day  to 
find  out  whether  the  report  was  true 
or  not. 

We  cannot  afford,  therefore,  to  let 
the  rumors  of  irresponsible  persons 
and  origins  get  into  the  atmosphere 
of  the  United  States.  We  are  trustees 
for  what  I venture  to  say  is  the  great- 
est heritage  that  any  nation  ever  had, 
the  love  of  justice  and  righteousness 
and  human  liberty.  For,  fundament- 
ally, those  are  the  things  to  which 
America  is  addicted  and  to  which  she 
is  devoted.  There  are  groups  of  selfish 
men  in  the  United  States,  there  are 
coteries,  where  sinister  things  are  pur- 
posed, but  the  great  heart  of  the 
American  people  is  just  as  sound  and 
true  as  it  ever  was.  And  it  is  a single 
heart;  it  is  the  heart  of  America.  It 
is  not  a heart  made  up  of  sections 
selected  out  of  other  countries. 

What  I try  to  remind  myself  of 
every  day  when  I am  almost  overcome 
by  perplexities,  what  I try  to  remem- 
ber. is  what  the  people  at  home  are 
thinking  about.  I try  to  put  myself 
in  the  place  of  the  man  who  does  not 
know  all  the  things  that  I know  and 
ask  myself  what  he  would  like  the 
policy  of  this  country  to  be.  Not  the 
talkative  man,  not  the  partisan  man, 
not  the  man  who  remembers  first  that 
he  is  a Republican  or  a Democrat,  or 
that  his  parents  were  German  or  Eng- 
lish, but  the  man  who  remembers  first 
that  the  whole  destiny  of  modern 
affairs  centers  largely  upon  his  being 
an  American  first  of  all.  If  I per- 
mitted myself  to  be  a partisan  in  this 
present  struggle,  I would  be  unworthy 
to  represent  you.  If  I permitted  my- 
self to  forget  the  people  who  are  not 
partisans,  I would  be  unworthy  to  be 
your  spokesman.  I am  not  sure  that 
I am  worthy  to  represent  you,  but 
I do  claim  this  degree  of  worthiness— 
that  before  everything  else  I love 
America. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE 

% PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

AT  CONVENTION  HALL,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 

MAY  10,  1915 


R.  Mayor,  Fellow  Citizens — It 
warms  my  heart  that  you 
should  give  me  such  a re- 
ception; but  it  is  not  of  my- 
self that  I wish  to  think 
tonight,  but  of  those  who  have  just 
become  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

This  is  the  only  country  in  the 
world  which  experiences  this  constant 
and  repeated  rebirth.  Other  countries 
depend  upon  the  multiplication  of 
their  own  native  people.  This  country 
is  constantly  drinking  strength  out  of 
new  sources  by  the  voluntary  associa- 
tion with  it  of  great  bodies  of  strong 
men  and  forward-looking  women  out 
of  other  lands.  And  so  by  the  gift  of 
the  free  will  of  independent  people 
It  is  being  constantly  renewed  from 
generation  to  generation  by  the  same 
process  by  which  it  was  originally  cre- 
ated. It  is  as  if  humanity  had  de- 
termined to  see  to  it  that  this  great 
nation,  founded  for  the  benefit  of  hu- 


manity, should  not  lack  for  the  alle- 
giance of  the  people  of  the  world. 

You  have  just  taken  an  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  United  States.  Of  alle- 
giance to  whom?  Of  allegiance  to 
no  one.  unless  it  be  God — certainly 
not  of  allegiance  to  those  who  tem- 
porarily represent  this  great  govern- 
ment. You  have  taken  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  a great  ideal,  to  a great  body 
of  principles,  to  a great  hope  of  the 
human  race.  You  have  said,  “We  are 
going  to  America  not  only  to  earn  a 
living,  not  only  to  seek  the  things 
which  it  was  more  difficult  to  obtain 
where  we  were  born,  but  to  help  for- 
ward the  great  enterprises  of  the  hu- 
man spirit — to  let  men  know  that 
everywhere  in  the  world  there  are 
men  who  will  cross  strange  oceans 
and  go  where  a speech  is  spoken 
which  is  alien  to  them  if  they  can  but 
satisfy  their  quest  for  what  their 
spirits  crave;  knowing  that  whatever 


the  speech  there  is  but  one  longing 
and  utterance  of  the  human  heart, 
and  that  is  for  liberty  and  justice.” 
And  while  you  bring  all  countries 
with  you,  you  come  with  a purpose 
of  leaving  all  other  countries  behind 
you — bringing  what  is  best  of  their 
spirit,  but  not  looking  over  your 
shoulders  and  seeking  to  perpetuate 
what  you  intended  to  leave  behind  in 
them.  I certainly  would  not  be  one 
even  to  suggest  that  a man  cease  to 
love  the  home  of  his  birth  and  the 
nation  of  his  origin — these  things  are 
very  sacred  and  ought  not  to  be  put 
out  of  our  hearts — but  it  is  one  thing 
to  love  the  place  where  you  were 
born  and  it  is  another  thing  to  dedi- 
cate yourself  to  the  place  to  which 
you  go.  You  cannot  dedicate  your- 
self to  America  unless  you  become  in 
every  respect  and  with  every  purpose 
of  your  will  thorough  Americans.  You 
cannot  become  thorough  Americans 
|\if  you  think  of  yourselves  in  groups. 
'America  does  not  consist  of  groups.  A 
man  who  thinks  of  himself  as  be- 
longing to  a particular  national  group 
in  America  has  not  yet  become  an 
American,  and  the  man  who  goes 
among  you  to  trade  upon  your  nation- 
ality is  no  worthy  son  to  live  under 
the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

My  urgent  advice  to  you  would  be, 
not  only  always  to  think  first  of 
America,  but  always,  also,  to  think 
first  of  humanity.  You  do  not  love 
humanity  if  you  seek  to  divide 
humanity  into  jealous  camps.  Human- 
ity can  be  welded  together  only  by 
love,  by  sympathy,  by  justice,  not  by 
jealousy  and  hatred.  I am  sorry  for 
the  man  who  seeks  to  make  personal 
capital  out  of  the  passions  of  his  fel- 
lowmen.  He  has  lost  the  touch  and 
ideal  of  America,  for  America  was 
created  to  unite  mankind  by  those 
passions  which  lift  and  not  by  the 
passions  which  separate  and  debase. 
We  came  to  America,  either  ourselves 
or  in  the  persons  of  our  ancestors, 
to  better  the  ideals  of  men,  to  make 
them  see  finer  things  than  they  had 
seen  before,  to  get  rid  of  the  things 
that  divide  and  to  make  sure  of  the 
things  that  unite.  It  was  but  an  his- 
torical accident  no  doubt  that  this 
great  country  was  called  the  “United 
States”;  yet  I am  very  thankful  that 
it  has  that  word  “United”  in  its  title, 
and  the  man  who  seeks  to  divide  man 
from  man,  group  from  group,  interest 
from  interest  in  this  great  Union  is 
striking  at  its  very  heart. 

It  is  a very  interesting  circum- 
stance to  me,  in  thinking  of  those 
of  you  who  have  just  sworn  allegiance 
to  this  great  Government,  that  you 
were  drawn  across  the  ocean  by  some 
beckoning  finger  of  hope,  by  some  be- 
lief, by  some  vision  of  a new  kind 
of  justice,  by  some  expectation  of  a 
better  kind  of  life.  No  doubt  you 
have  been  disappointed  in  some  of 
us.  Some  of  us  are  very  disappoint- 
ing. No  doubt  you  have  found  that 
justice  in  the  United  estates  goes  only 
with  a pure  heart  and  a right  pur- 
pose as  it  does  everywhere  else  in 
the  world.  No  doubt  what  you  found 
here  did  not  seem  touched  for  you, 
after  all,  with  the  complete  beauty 
of  the  ideal  which  you  had  conceived 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


39 


beforehand.  But  remember  this:  If 

we  had  grown  at  all  poor  in  the  ideal, 
you  brought  some  of  it  with  you.  A 
man  does  not  go  out  to  seek  the  thing 
that  is  not  in  him.  A man  does  not 
hope  for  the  thing  that  he  does  not 
believe  in,  and  if  some  of  us  have  for- 
gotten what  America  believed  in,  you, 
at  any  rate,  imported  in  your  own 
hearts  a renewal  of  the  belief.  That  is 
the  reason  that  I,  for  one,  make  you 
welcome.  If  I have  in  any  degree 
forgotten  what  America  was  intended 
for,  I will  thank  God  if  you  will  re- 
mind me.  I was  born  in  America. 
You  dreamed  dreams  of  what  Amer- 
ica was  to  be,  and  I hope  you  brought 
the  dreams  with  you.  No  man  that 
does  not  see  visions  will  ever  realize 
any  high  hope  or  undertake  any  high 
enterprise.  Just  because  you  brought 
dreams  with  you,  America  is  more 
likely  to  realize  dreams  such  as  you 
brought.  You  are  enriching  us  if  you 
came  expecting  us  to  be  better  than 
we  are. 

See,  my  friends,  what  that  means. 
It  means  that  Americans  must  have 
a consciousness  different  from  the 
consciousness  of  every  other  nation  in 
the  world.  I am  not  saying  this  with 
even  the  slightest  thought  of  criticism 
of  other  nations.  You  know  how  it 
is  with  a family.  A family  gets  cen- 
tered on  itself  if  it  is  not  careful  and 
is  less  interested  in  the  neighbors 
than  it  is  in  its  own  members.  So  a 
nation  that  is  not  constantly  renewed 
out  of  new  sources  is  apt  to  have  the 
narrowness  and  prejudice  of  a fam- 
ily; whereas,  America  must  have  this 
consciousness,  that  on  all  sides  it 
touches  elbows  and  touches  hearts 
with  all  the  nations  of  mankind.  The 
example  of  America  must  be  a special 
example.  The  example  of  America 
must  be  the  example  not  merely  of 

i 


peace  because  it  will  not  fight,  but 
of  peace  because  peace  is  the  healing 
and  elevating  influence  of  the  world 
and  strife  is  not.  There  is  such  a 
thing  as  a man  being  too  proud  to 
fight.  There  is  such  a thing  as  a 
nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not 
need  to  convince  others  by  force  that 
it  is  right. 

You  have  come  into  this  great  Na- 
tion voluntarily  seeking  something 
that  we  have  to  give,  and  all  that 
we  have  to  give  is  this:  We  can  not 

exempt  you  from  work.  No  man  is 
exempt  from  work  anywhere  in  the 
world.  We  can  not  exempt  you  from 
the  strife  and  the  heartbreaking  bur- 
den of  the  struggle  of  the  day — that 
is  common  to  mankind  everywhere; 
we  can  not  exempt  you  from  the  loads 
that  you  must  carry.  We  can  only 
make  them  light  by  the  spirit  in 
which  they  are  carried.  That  is  the 
spirit  of  hope,  it  is  the  spirit  of 
libeity,  it  is  the  spirit  of  justice. 

When  I was  asked,  therefore,  by  the 
Mayor  and  the  committee  that  ac- 
companied him  to  come  up  from 
Washington  to  meet  this  great  com- 
pany of  newly  admitted  citizens,  I 
could  not  decline  the  invitation.  I 
ought  not  to  be  away  from  Washing- 
ton, and  yet  I feel  that  it  has  renewed 
my  spirit  as  an  American  to  be  here. 
In  Washington  men  tell  you  so  many 
things  every  day  that  are  not  so,  and 
I like  to  come  and  stand  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a great  body  of  my  fellow- 
citizens,  whether  they  have  been  my 
fellow-citizens  a long  time  or  a short 
time,  and  drink,  as  it  were,  out  of  the 
common  fountains  with  them  and  go 
back  feeling  what  you  have  so  gen- 
erously given  me — the  sense  of  your 
support  and  of  the  living  vitality  in 
your  hearts  of  the  great  ideals  which 
have  made  America  the  hope  of  the 
world. 


AMERICAN  NEUTRALITY 


AN  APPEAL 

BY  THE 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  > 

TO  THE 

CITIZENS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC,  REQUESTING  THEIR  ASSISTANCE 
IN  MAINTAINING  A STATE  OF  NEUTRALITY  DURING 
THE  PRESENT  EUROPEAN  WAR. 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  PRESIDENT 

Y Fellow  Countrymen — I sup-  | within  our  own  choice  what  its  effects 
pose  that  every  thoughtful  j upon  us  will  be  and  to  urge  very  earn- 
man  in  America  has  asked  | estly  upon  you  the  sort  of  speech  and 
himself,  during  these  last  I conduct  which  will  best  safeguard  the 
troubled  weeks,  what  influ-  j nation  against  distress  and  disaster, 
ence  the  European  war  may  exert  upon  ; The  effect  of  the  war  upon  the 
the  United  States,  and  I take  the  lib-  United  States  will  depend  upon  what 
erty  of  addressing  a few  words  to  you  American  citizens  say  and  do.  Every 
In  order  to  point  out  that  it  is  entirely  i man  who  really  loves  America  will 

• < i 

I . 


act  and  speak  in  the  true  spirit  of  neu- 
trality, which  is  the  spirit  of  impar- 
tiality and  fairness  and  friendliness  to 
all  concerned.  The  spirit  of  the  Nation 
in  this  critical  matter  will  be  deter- 
mined largely  by  what  individuals  and 
society  and  those  gathered  in  public 
meetings  do  and  say,  upon  what  news- 
papers and  magazines  contain,  upon 
what  ministers  utter  in  their  pulpits, 
and  men  proclaim  as  their  opinions  on 
the  street. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are 
drawn  from  many  nations,  and  chiefly 
from  the  nations  now  at  war.  It  is 
natural  and  inevitable  that  there 
should  be  the  utmost  variety  of  sym- 
pathy and  desire  among  them  with  re- 
gard to  the  issues  and  circumstances  of 
the  conflict.  Some  will  wish  one  na- 
tion, others  another,  to  succeed  in  the 
momentous  struggle.  It  will  be  easy 
to  excite  passion  and  difficult  to  allay 
it.  Those  responsible  for  exciting  it 
will  assume  a heavy  responsibility,  re- 
sponsibility for  no  less  a thing  than 
that  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
whose  love  of  their  country  and  whose 
loyalty  to  its  Government  should  unite 
them  as  Americans  all,  bound  in  honor 
and  affection  to  think  first  of  her  and 
her  interests,  may  be  divided  in  camps 
of  hostile  opinion,  hot  against  each 
other,  involved  in  the  war  itself  in  im- 
pulse and  opinion  if  not  in  action. 

Such  divisions  among  us  would  be 
fatal  to  our  peace  of  mind  and  might 
seriously  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
proper  performance  of  our  duty  as  the 
one  great  nation  at  peace,  the  one  peo- 
ple holding  itself  ready  to  play  a part 
of  impartial  mediation  and  speak  the 
counsels  of  peace  and  accommodation, 
not  as  a partisan,  but  as  a friend, 

I venture,  therefore,  my  fellow  coun- 
trymen, to  speak  a solemn  word  of 
warning  to  you  against  that  deepest, 
most  subtle,  most  essential  breach  of 
neutrality  Which  may  spring  out  of 
partisanship,  out  of  passionately  tak- 
ing sides.  The  United  States  must  be — 
neutral  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name  dur- 
ing  these  days  that  are  to  try  men’s  „■/ 
souls.  We  must  be  impartial  in  thought  ^ 
as  well  as  in  action,  must  put  a curb 
upon  our  sentiments  as  well  as  upon 
every  transaction  that  might  be  con- 
strued as  a preference  of  one  party  to 
the  struggle  before  another. 

My  thought  is  of  America.  I am 
speaking,  I feel  sure,  the  earnest  wish 
and  purpose  of  every  thoughtful  Amer- 
ican that  this  great  country  of  ours, 
which  is,  of  course,  the  first  in  our 
thoughts  and  in  our  hearts,  should 
show  herself  in  this  time  of  peculiar 
trial  a Nation  fit  beyond  others  to  ex- 
hibit the  fine  poise  of  undisturbed  judg- 
ment, the  dignity  of  self  control,  tls? 
efficiecy  of  dispassionate  action;  a Na- 
tion that  neither  sits  in  judgment  upon 
others  nor  is  disturbed  in  her  own 
counsels  and  which  keeps  herself  fit 
and  free  to  do  what  is  honest  and  dis- 
interested and  truly  serviceable  for 
the  peace  of  the  world. 

Shall  we  not  resolve  to  put  upon  our- 
selves the  restraints  which  will  bring 
to  our  people  the  happiness  and  the 
great  and  lasting  influence  for  peace 
we  covet  for  them? 


\ 


r 40 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


OFFICIAL  TEXT  OF  THIRD  UNITED  STATES  NOTE  TO  GERMANY. 


OLLOWING  is  the  official  text 
of  the  latest  American  note 
to  Germany  regarding  sub- 
marine warfare,  which  was 
delivered  to  the  Foreign 
Office  at  Berlin  on  July  24  by  Ambassa- 
dor Gerard. 

The  Secretary  of  State  to  Ambassador 
Gerard. 

, *■  Department  of  State, 

Washington,  July  21,  1915. 
Tou  are  instructed  to  deliver  textu- 
ally  the  following  note  to  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs: 

The  note  of  the  Imperial  German 
Government  dated  the  8th  of  July, 
1915,  has  received  the  careful  consid- 
eration of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  and  it  regrets  to  be 
obliged  to  say  that  it  has  found  it  very 
unsatisfactory,  because  it  fails  to  meet 
the  real  difference  between  the  two 
governments  and  indicates  no  way  in 
which  the  accepted  principles  of  law 
vm*  *iumanlty  may  be  applied  in  the 
grave  matter  in  controversy,  but  pro- 
poses, on  the  contrary,  arrangements 
for  a partial  suspension  of  those  prin- 
ciples which  virtually  set  them  aside. 

The  Government  of  the  United 
States  notes  with  satisfaction  that  the 
Imperial  German  Government  recog- 
nizes without  reservation  the  validity 
of  the  principles  insisted  on  in  the 
several  communications  which  this 
Government  has  addressed  to  the  Im- 
perial German  Government  with  re- 
gard to  its  announcement  of  a war 
zone  and  the  use  of  submarines 
against  merchantmen  on  the  high  seas 
— the  principle  that  the  high  seas  are 
free,  that  the  character  and  cargo  of 
a merchantman  must  first  be  ascer- 
tained before  she  can  lawfully  be 
Beized  or  destroyed,  and  that  the  lives 
of  noncombatants  may  in  no  case  be 
put  in  jeopardy  unless  the  vessel  re- 
sists or  seeks  to  escape  after  being 
summoned  to  submit  to  examination: 
for  a belligerent  act  of  retaliation  is 
per  se  an  act  beyond  the  law,  and  the 
defense  of  an  act  as  retaliatory  is  an 
admission  that  it  is  illegal. 

The  Government  of  the  United 
States  is,  however,  keenly  disap- 
pointed to  find  that  the  Imperial  Ger- 
man Government  regards  itself  as  in 
large  degree  exempt  from  the  obliga- 
tion to  observe  these  principles,  even 
where  neutral  vessels  are  concerned, 
by  what  it  believes  the  policy  and 
practice  of  the  Government  of  Great 
Britain  to  be  in  the  present  war  with 
regard  to  neutral  commerce.  The  Im- 
perial German  Government  will  readi- 
ly understand  that  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  cannot  discuss  the 
policy  of  the  Government  of  Great 


Britain  with  regard  to  neutral  trade  ! 
except  with  that  Government  itself, 
and  that  it  must  regard  the  conduct 
of  other  belligerent  governments  as  ir- 
relevant to  any  discussion  with  the 
Imperial  German  Government  of  what 
this  Government  regards  as  grave  and 
unjustifiable  violations  of  the  rights 
of  American  citizens  by  German  naval 
commanders.  Illegal  and  inhuman 
acts,  however  justifiable  they  may  be 
thought  to  be  against  an  enemy  who 
is  believed  to  have  acted  in  contra- 
vention of  law  and  humanity,  are 
manifestly  indefensible  when  they  de- 
prive neutrals  of  their  acknowledged 
rights,  particularly  when  they  violate 
the  right  to  life  itself.  If  a belligerent 
cannot  retaliate  against  an  enemy 
without  injuring  the  lives  of  neutrals, 
as  well  as  their  property,  humanity,  as 
well  as  justice  and  a due  regard  for 
the  dignity  of  neutral  Powers,  should 
dictate  that  the  practice  be  discon- 
tinued. If  persisted  in  it  would  in  such 
circumstances  constitute  an  unpardon- 
able offense  against  the  sovereignty  of 
the  neutral  nation  affected.  The  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  is  not 
unmindful  of  the  extraordinary  con- 
ditions created  by  this  war  or  of  the 
radical  alterations  of  circumstance 
and  method  of  attack  produced  by  the 
use  of  instrumentalities  of  naval  war- 
fare which  the  nations  of  the  world 
cannot  have  had  in  view  when  the  ex- 
isting rules  of  International  law  were 
formulated,  and  it  is  ready  to  make 
every  reasonable  allowance  for  these 
novel  and  unexpected  aspects  of  war 
at  sea;  but  it  cannot  consent  to  abate 
any  essential  or  fundamental  right  of 
its  people  because  of  a mere  alteration 
of  circumstance.  The  rights  of  neu- 
trals in  time  of  war  are  based  upon 
principle,  not  upon  expediency,  and 
the  principles  are  immutable.  It  is  the 
duty  and  obligation  of  belligerents  to 
find  a way  to  adapt  the  new  circum- 
stances to  them. 

The  events  of  the  past  two  months 
have  clearly  indicated  that  it  is  possi- 
ble and  practicable  to  conduct  such 
submarine  operations  as  have  char- 
acterized the  activity  of  the  Imperial 
German  Navy  within  the  so-called 
war  zone  in  substantial  accord  with 
the  accepted  practices  of  regulated 
warfare.  The  whole  world  has  looked 
with  interest  and  increasing  satisfac- 
tion at  the  demonstration  of  that 
possibility  by  German  naval  com- 
manders. It  is  manifestly  possible, 
therefore,  to  lift  the  whole  practice 
of  submarine  attack  above  the  criti- 
cism which  it  has  aroused  and  remove 
the  chief  causes  of  offense. 

In  view  of  the  admission  of  illegal- 
ity made  by  the  Imperial  Government 
when  it  pleaded  the  right  of  retalia- 
tion in  defense  of  its  acts,  and  in  view 
of  the  manifest  possibility  of  conform- 
ing to  the  established  rules  or  naval 
warfare,  the  Government  of  the  United 


! States  cannot  believe  that  the  Imperial 
Government  will  longer  refrain  from 
disavowing  the  wanton  act  of  its  naval 
commander  in  sinking  the  Lusitania  or 
from  offering  reparation  for  the  Amer- 
ican lives  lost,  so  far  as  reparation  can 
be  made  for  a needless  destruction  of 
human  life,  by  an  illegal  act. 

The  Government  of  the  United 
States,  while  not  indifferent  to  the 
friendly  spirit  in  which  it  is  made, 
cannot  accept  the  suggestion  of  the 
Imperial  German  Government  that 
certain  vessels  be  designated  and 
agreed  upon  which  shall  be  free  on 
the  seas  now  illegally  proscribed.  The 
very  agreement  would,  by  implica- 
tion, subject  other  vessels  to  illegal 
attack  and  would  be  a curtailment 
and  therefore  an  abandonment  of  the 
principles  for  which  this  Government 
contends  and  which  in  times  of  calmer 
counsels  every  nation  would  concede 
as  of  course. 

The  Government  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Imperial  German  Gov- 
ernment are  contending  for  the  same 
great  object,  have  long  stood  together 
in  urging  the  very  principles  upon 
which  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  now  so  solemnly  insists.  They 
are  both  contending  for  the  freedom 
of  the  seas.  The  Government  of  the 
United  States  will  continue  to  con- 
tend for  that  freedom,  from  whatever 
quarter  violated,  without  compromise 
and  at  any  cost.  It  invites  the  prac- 
tical co-operation  of  the  Imperial 
German  Government  at  this  time  when 
co-operation  may  accomplish  most  and 
this  great  common  object  be  most 
strikingly  and  effectively  achieved. 

The  Imperial  German  Government 
expresses  the  hope  that  this  object 
may  be  in  some  measure  accomplished 
even  before  the  present  war  ends.  It 
can  be.  The  Government  of  the 
United  States  not  only  feels  obliged  to 
insist  upon  it,  by  whomsoever  violated 
or  ignored,  in  the  protection  of  its  own 
citizens,  but  is  also  deeply  interested 
in  seeing  it  made  practicable  between 
the  belligerents  themselves  and  holds 
itself  ready  at  any  time  to  act  as  the 
common  friend  who  may  be  privileged 
to  suggest  a way. 

In  the  meantime  the  very  value 
which  this  Government  sets  upon  the 
long  and  unbroken  friendship  between 
the  people  and  Government  of  the 
United  States  and  the  people  and  Gov- 
ernment of  the  German  nation  impels 
it  to  press  very  solemnly  upon  the  Im- 
perial German  Government  the  neces- 
sity for  a scrupulous  observance  cf 
neutral  rights  in  this  critical  matter. 
Friendship  itself  prompts  it  to  say  to 
the  Imperial  Government  that  repeti- 
tion by  the  commanders  of  German 
naval  vessels  of  acts  in  contravention 
of  those  rights  must  be  regarded  by 
the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
when  they  affect  American  citizens,  as 
deliberately  unfriendly. 

LANSING. 


TEXT  OF  GERMAN  PLEDGE  SENT  BY  COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF  TO  SECRETARY  LANSING 


Following  an  oral  statement  to  Sec- 
retary Lansing  on  September  1 that 
Germany  had  accepted  the  declara- 
tions of  the  United  States  in  the  sub- 
marine warfare  controversy.  Count 
von  Bernstorff,  the  German  Ambassa- 
dor, sent  the  following  letter  to  Mr. 
Lansing: 

“Washington,  D.  C.,  September  1. 

“My  Dear  Mr.  Secretary — With  ref- 
erence to  our  conversation  of  this 
morning,  I beg  to  inform  you  that  my 
Instructions  concerning  answer  to 


your  last  Lusitania  note  contains  the 
following  passage: 

“ ‘Liners  will  not  be  sunk  by  our 
submarines  without  warning  and  with- 
out safety  of  the  lives  of  noncombat- 
ants, provided  that  the  liners  do  not 
try  to  escape  or  offer  resistance.’ 

“Although  I know  that  you  do  not 
wish  to  discuss  the  Lusitania  question 
till  the  Arabic  incident  has  been  defi- 
nitely' and  satisfactorily  settled,  I de- 
sire to  inform  you  of  the  above  be- 
cause this  policy  of  my  government 
was  decided  on  before  the  Arabic  in- 
cident occurred. 


“I  have  no  objection  to  y'our  making 
any  use  you  may  please  of  the  above 
information. 

“I  remain,  my  dear  Mr.  Lansing, 
very  sincerely  y'ours, 

"J.  BERNSTORFF.” 

In  connection  with  the  letter.  Secre- 
tary Lansing  made  the  following  state- 
ment: 

“In  view  of  the  clearness  <.2  the  fore- 
going statement,  it  seems  needless  to 
make  any  comment  in  regard  to  it, 
other  than  to  say  that  it  appears  to  be 
a recognition  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple for  which  we  have  contended.” 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


41 


®fje  peoples  Crust  Company 


INCORPORATED  1889 


181-183  MONTAGUE  STREET 


NOSTRAND  AVENUE,  CORNER  HERKIMER  STREET 
CLINTON  AVENUE,  CORNER  MYRTLE  AVENUE 
FIFTH  AVENUE,  CORNER  FIFTY-FOURTH  STREET 
43  FLATBUSH  AVENUE,  NEAR  FULTON  STREET 


Capital  and  Surplus  - - - - $2,400,000.00 


MEMBER  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  CLEARING  HOUSE 


J.  G.  DETTMER 
HORACE  J.  MORSE 
WILLIAM  B.  HILL 
HOWARD  M.  SMITH 
DAVID  A.  BOODY 
HERBERT  L.  PRATT 
WILLIAM  C.  COURTNEY 
WILLIAM  H.  GOOD 


TRUSTEES 

W.  EUGENE  KIMBALL 
ADRIAN  T.  KIERNAN 
CHARLES  M.  ENGLIS 
WILLIAM  E.  HARMON 
CHARLES  A.  BOODY 
MAX  RUCKGABER  Jr. 
WALTER  V.  CRANFORD 
CHARLES  E.  ROBERTSON 


JAMES  H JOURDAN 
JOHN  F.  HILDERBRAND 
THOMAS  E.  MURRAY 
GEORGE  W.  DAVISON 
ALBERT  TAG 
ANDREW  D.  BAIRD 
JAMES  A.  SMITH 


OFFICERS 

CHARLES  A.  BOODY,  President 


J.  G.  DETTMER,  1st  Vice-Pres. 

HORACE  J.  MORSE,  2d  Vice-Pres. 
CHARLES  L.  SCHENCK,  3d  V.-Pres.  & Secy 
WILLIAM  A.  FISCHER,  Asst.  Sec’y 


J.  FRANK  BIRDSELL,  Asst.  Sec’y 
HENRY  M.  HEATH,  Asst.  Sec’y 
CLARENCE  I.  McGOWAN,  Asst.  Sec’y 
WILLIAM  F.  AYLING,  Asst.  Sec’y 


The  right  banking  connections  are  a necessary  aid  to  success  in  modern 
business.  We  invite  your  account  and  assure  you  of  the  most  careful,  personal 
attention  to  your  individual  needs. 


42 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


Chairman  Committee  on  Appropriations 
House  of  Representatives 


Candidate  for  Justice 

Representative  John  J. 
Fitzgerald  was  born  in 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  on  March 
10,  1872.  His  preliminary 
education  was  received  in 
Brooklyn  and  subsequently 
he  entered  Manhattan  Col- 
lege, New  York,  whence  he 


of  the  Supreme  Court. 

;was  graduated  in  1891  with] 
! the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
■Arts.  He  entered  New  York 
Law  School  and  in  1893  was 
graduated  therefrom  and  re- 
ceived from  the  Regents  of 
the  State  of  New  York  the 
i degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws,  I 


with  honor.  The  same  year 
he  received  the  degree  of 
Master  of  Arts  from  Manhat- 
tan College. 

While  attending  the  New 
York  Law  School  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald was  employed  in  the 
office  of  Hon.  Lucius  E.  Chit- 
tenden, a distinguished  New 
York  lawyer,  who  had  been 
Registrar  of  the  Treasury  un- 
der President  Lincoln.  Mr. 
Fitzgerald  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  May,  1893,  and  en- 
tered actively  upon  the  prac- 
tice of  the  law.  For  many 
years  he  maintained  his  office 
in  Manhattan,  but  in  1902 
moved  it  to  Brooklyn. 

In  1898  he  was  elected  to 
the  Fifty-sixth  Congress  from 
the  Second  District  of  New 
York  and  re-elected  in  1900. 
In  1902  he  was  elected  from 
the  Seventh  Congressional 
District  and  has  since  served 
continuously. 

Mr.  Fitzgerald  is  noted  as 
a parliamentarian,  being  con- 
sidered by  many  as  the  best 
parliamentarian  in  Congress. 
He  has  specialized  in  mat- 
ters affecting  governmental 
finance  and  is  regarded  as  an 
authority  on  such  matters. 
By  request,  he  addressed  a 
committee  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  regarding 
a budget  for  the  State  of  New 
York  and  many  of  his  sugges- 
tions are  incorporated  in  the 
proposed  article  providing  a 
budget. 

Mr.  Fitzgerald  is  a ready 
and  aggressive  debater,  an  in- 
defatigable worker,  and,  by 
reason  of  his  position  of 
Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Appropriations,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  House  of  Rep-> 
resentatives. 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


43 


MAURICE  E.  CONNOLLY, 

Borough  President  of  Queens. 


r 44 


Eagle  Library — SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


45 


ROBT.  H.  ROY 

Judge  Kings  County  Court,  N.  Y. 


t 


r 46 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


County  Clerk  Charles  S.  Devoy 

COUNTY  CLERK  CHARLES  S.  DEVOY  was  born  in  the  old  Astor  House,  New  York,  on  May  23, 
1862.  When  he  was  seven  (7)  years  old  his  parents  moved  to  Brooklyn,  and  for  forty-six 
years  he  has  been  a resident  of  the  Seventh  Assembly  District.  In  1901  Mr.  Devoy  was  elected 
City  Magistrate  and  in  1902  he  became  Chief  Clerk  of  the  County  Court,  where  he  rendered  excel- 
lent service  in  the  reorganization  of  its  clerical  procedure.  In  the  election  of  1911  Mr.  Devoy  was 
elected  County  Clerk  of  Kings  County  by  28,000  plurality.  His  efficient  service  as  County  Clerk 
during  that  term  made  him  the  logical  candidate  for  re-election  in  1913,  when  he  was  again  elected 
and  received  62,000  plurality. 

During  Mr.  Devoy’s  two  terms  as  County  Clerk  he  has  brought  every  department  under  his 
jurisdiction  to  the  highest  point  of  efficiency.  The  successful  attainment  of  this  accomplishment  is 
due  chiefly  to  his  wide  and  varied  experience  with  matters  pertaining  to  the  Courts,  combined  with 
the  broadening  influence  of  many  years  in  public  life  and  his  natural  executive  ability.  The  secret  of 
his  ever-increasing  personal  popularity  is  due  to  his  possession  of  a pleasing  personality.  Political 
discrimination  is  abolished  in  the  personnel  of  the  County  Clerk’s  office,  and  efficient  public  service 
is  the  result.  County  Clerk  Devoy’s  popularity  has  increased  considerably  since  he  entered  public 
life  back  in  1901,  and  during  the  past  four  years  he  has  risen  higher  in  public  favor  in  the  estimation 
of  all  who  appreciate  his  ability  and  personality. 


47 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


GEORGE  J.  S.  DOWLING 


Candidate  for  County  Judge 
in  the  Democratic  Primaries. 

He  is  a former  president  and  at  present  active  member 
of  the  St.  Patrick  and  Emerald  Societies,  a director  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Orphan  Asylum  Society,  a member  of  the 
American  Bar  Association,  the  New  York  State  and  Brooklyn 
Bar  Associations,  a member  of  DeLong  Council,  R.  A.;  Bed- 
ford Council,  Knights  of  Columbus;  the  Twelfth  Assembly 
District  Democratic  Club  and  the  Washington  Club  of  the 
Tenth  Assembly  District,  an  alumnus  of  Brooklyn  College 
and  St.  Francis  College  and  member  of  the  Anvil  Chorus, 
Brooklyn  Press  Club,  Brooklyn  Civic  Club,  Manufacturers 
and  Business  Men’s  Association,  New  York  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, South  Brooklyn  Board  of  Trade,  Brooklyn  Law  Li- 
brary, Wallabout  Market  Merchants  Association,  ex-Presi- 
dent  of  the  Franklin  Literary  Society  and  member  of  the 
Brooklyn  Democratic  Club  and  Loyola  League. 


r '48 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


Biographical  Sketch  of 


Drescher’s  career  is  interesting.  He  rose  from  a 
poor  East  Side  boy  to  his  present  position  without 
having  the  advantages  of  what  would  be  termed  a 
scholastic  education,  having  lost  his  father  at  the 
tender  age  of  3.  He  was  thrown  upon  his  own 
resources  when  but  a child,  and  in  that  way  be 
equipped  himself  for  the  battles  of  life.  In  order 
to  support  himself  and  those  dependent  upon  him, 
he  sold  newspapers  upon  the  Bowery.  He  also 
attended  Public  School  No.  4,  on  Rivington  street, 
Manhattan,  many  of  the  graduates  of  which  are 
pre-eminent  in  New  York  life. 

At  the  age  of  15  he  became  interested  in  politics, 
and  was  one  of  the  orators  who  took  the  stand  for 
the  late  Henry  George. 

Drescher  attended  Cooper  Union  in  the  evenings 
and  developed  himself  to  be  a first  class  speaker 
and  debater.  He  also  took  a great  interest  in  boys’ 
clubs,  and  was  the  leader  of  the  Boys’  Civic 
League  at  the  University  Settlement  Society.  He 
was  one  of  the  champions  for  small  parks  on  the 
East  Side  and  had  a close  personal  friendship  with 
Jacob  Riis. 

About  fifteen  years  ago  he  settled  in  Browns- 
ville, where  he  lives  with  his  wife,  daughter  and 
son.  Drescher  has  been  secretary  of  the  Browns- 
ville Board  of  Trade  for  over  eleven  years. 
Brownsville  owes  its  development  to  Drescher.  It 
was  Drescher  who  secured  from  the  city  for  this 
section  many  public  improvements  that  made 
Brownsville  so  popular  and  prosperous  a com- 
munity. 

In  1910  he  was  elected  a member  of  the  Board 
of  Aldermen,  where  he  proved  himself  to  be  a 
factor.  Among  the  measures  which  Drescher 
introduced  during  his  term  as  Alderman  are  the 
following: 


Alexander  S.  Drescher 

He  introduced  the  measure  and  secured  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Municipal  Bath  House,  despite 
powerful  opposition  from  the  Coney  Island  “Bath 
House  Barons.” 

He  advocated  and  helped  secure  the  Betsy  Head 
Memorial  Playground  and  Recreation  Center,  which 
will  be  the  finest  and  best  equipped  in  the  world. 

He  introduced  the  measure  for  the  establishment 
of  the  East  New  York  High  School,  soon  to  be 
erected,  which  will  accommodate  2,500  students; 
he  also  helped  to  secure  the  appropriation  for  the 
establishment  of  the  Evening  High  School  now  in 
use  by  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls. 

He  urged  upon  the  Carnegie  Library  Commis- 
sion the  establishment  of  the  only  children’s 
library  in  the  world.  This  library  was  only  re- 
cently dedicated. 

He  is  the  author  of  the  Aldermanic  resolution 
appropriating  $1,000,000  for  the  development  of 
Jamaica  Bay  in  the  interests  of  commerce. 

In  the  interest  of  public  health,  and  to  prevent 
the  pollution  of  Jamaica  Bay,  he  secured  the  pass- 
age of  the  measure  enlarging  the  Twenty-sixth 
Ward  Disposal  Works. 

He  led  in  the  fight  and  helped  to  defeat  the 
1911  Tammany  Building  Code,  receiving  com- 
mendation of  the  public  and  of  the  press. 

He  called  attention  to  the  overcrowding  of  the 
local  hospitals,  and  helped  secure  the  appropria- 
tion for  the  proposed  East  New  York  Hospital  and 
Training  School,  soon  to  be  erected. 

As  chairman  of  the  Park  Committee,  he  recom- 
mended the  acquisition  of  Seaside  Park,  now  in 
use,  and  also  the  reclamation  of  the  beach  front  at 
Coney  Island. 

He  appeared  before  the  late  Mayor  Gaynor  in 
behalf  of  the  Street  Cleaning  Employees  Pension 
Fund,  also  presented  the  claims  of  the  patrolmen 
for  living  wages  and  advocated  an  increase  of 
salary  for  members  of  the  Fire  Department. 

Also,  he  conducted  the  largest  public  demon- 
stration ever  had  before  the  Rapid  Transit  Board 
in  favor  of  laying  out  the  Eastern  Parkway  subway 
route,  now  in  the  course  of  construction;  and  has 
been  for  the  past  twelve  years,  and  now  is,  secre- 
tary of  the  Eastern  Parkway  Subway  Association. 

He  is  a lawyer  by  profession,  and  is  counsel  for 
the  Maternity  Hospital  Association  of  Brooklyn, 
counsel  for  the  Brownsville  and  East  New  York 
Apothecaries  Association,  counsel  for  the  Asso- 
ciated Builders  of  Kings  County. 

He  is  an  honorary  member  of  the  McClellan- 
Garrison  Army  and  Navy  Union,  a member  of  the 
New  York  Press  Club,  Past  Deputy  Grand  Chan- 
cellor, Grand  Lodge,  Knights  of  Pythias;  member 
of  Acacia  Lodge,  No.  327,  Free  and  Accepted 
Masons.  He  is  delegate  to  the  Jewish  Com- 
munity, director  of  the  Brooklyn  Institution  for 
Safety,  member  of  the  Federation  of  Jewish  Char- 
ities. He  is  a member  of  the  Brooklyn  Bar  Asso- 
ciation and  secretary  of  the  Playground  Advisory 
Committee.  Also  a member  of  the  Independent 
Order  Brith  Abraham,  member  of  the  Civic  Club, 
member  of  “Talmud  Torah.” 


Eagle  Library — SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


**»  A>-. 


49 


WILLIAM  E.  KELLY 

POSTMASTER  OF  THE  BOROUGH  OF  BROOKLYN,  AND 
PRESIDENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  LETTER 
CARRIERS  ASSOCIATION 


WILLIAM  E.  KELLY 

The  appointment  of  William  E.  Kelly  to  be  Post- 
master of  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn  brings  to  that 
office  one  of  the  best  known  men  in  the  postal  serv- 
ice, and  the  first  who  has  risen  from  the  ranks  to  the 
head  of  the  local  department.  Mr.  Kelly  became  a 
letter  carrier  twenty-one  years  ago  and  has  been 
closely  identified  with  the  movement  to  improve  both 
the  department  and  the  thousands  of  employees  who 
handle  the  U.  S.  mail.  Since  1907  he  has  held  the 
presidency  of  the  National  Letter  Carriers  Associa- 
tion, an  organization  having  30,000  members  and 
1,500  branch  chapters.  He  has  assumed  the  duties 
of  Postmaster  in  the  sixth  largest  office  in  the  coun- 
try with  every  promise  of  success.  The  close  study 
which  he  has  devoted  to  conditions  in  the  service  is 
expected  to  result  in  great  improvement  as  concerns 
both  the  men  employed  and  the  convenience  of  the 
public.  He  is  known  to  entertain  some  decided  ideas 
on  the  subject  and  his  efforts  will  be  watched  with 
close  attention. 

Mr.  Kelly  was  born  in  Brooklyn,  October  18th, 
1872,  the  son  of  Matthew  E.  and  Catherine  Kelly. 
As  a lad  he  attended  public  schools  No.  9 and  No.  41 
and  after  completing  the  elementary  course  he  found 


employment  with  Harper  Bros.,  the  well-known  pub- 
lishers. His  evenings  were  spent  at  the  high  school 
and  he  subsequently  graduated  from  that  institution  i 
with  honors.  The  period  of  Mr.  Kelly’s  most  useful 
activity  began  with  the  day  on  which  he  entered  the 
postal  service.  The  work  possessed  a special  interest 
for  him  and  he  became  conversant  with  its  numerous  ' 
problems.  In  the  course  of  a few  years  he  helped  j 
organize  the  Brooklyn  branch  of  the  National  Letter 
Carriers  Association  and  was  soon  afterward  made 
president  of  the  local  body.  At  one  time  or  another 
he  has  taken  an  active  part  in  the  passage  of  legisla- 
tion bearing  on  the  welfare  of  departmental  em- 
ployees. One  of  the  bills  which  received  his  solid 
support  was  the  Reilly  eight  hour  law,  limiting  the 
period  of  postal  workers’  labor.  He  was  also  instru- 
mental in  the  discontinuance  of  Sunday  work  and 
participated  in  the  enactment  of  a measure  which 
provides  that  they  be  compensated  for  time  when  on 
duty;  he  also  helped  pass  the  bill  allowing  15  days 
vacation  for  employees  of  the  department  exclusive 
of  Sundays  and  holidays. 

When  it  was  made  known  that  Mr.  Kelly  was  a 
candidate  for  the  position  which  he  now  holds,  all 
divisions  of  the  community  came  forward  in  his  sup- 
port. He  has  been  a stanch  Democrat  over  an 
extended  period,  and  it  was  generally  agreed  that 
no  incumbent  of  the  office  could  be  more  acceptable 
to  the  party  than  Mr.  Kelly.  However,  political 
considerations  were  a minor  factor  in  the  selection 
' of  the  postal  carriers’  head  for  this  office.  It  was 
believed  that  his  close  relation  with  the  men  of  the 
department,  and  long  study  of  efficiency  methods, 
would  make  for  the  conduct  of  the  Brooklyn  office 
along  the  most  satisfactory  lines.'  These  facts  se- 
cured for  him  the  indorsement  of  Brooklyn’s  lead- 
ing civic  and  commercial  bodies.  With  such  sponsors, 
the  appointment  of  Mr.  Kelly  came  as  a natural 
result. 

The  by-laws  of  the  National  Letter  Carriers 
Association  provide  for  the  election  of  an  executive 
each  ensuing  year,  and  it  is  significant  of  Mr. 
Kelly’s  services  to  the  association  that  he  has  been 
annually  retained  in  office  since  becoming  president 
in  1907.  He  is  always  a conspicuous  figure  at  the 
national  gatherings  of  his  constituency,  and  is  per- 
sonally known  to  a large  division  of  the  member- 
ship. His  elevation  to  an  important  office  under 
the  Federal  Government  is.  all"  the  more  satisfying 
to  the  letter  carriers  of  the  country  owing  to  his 
great  personal  popularity,  and  it  would  seem  that 
the  Administration  has  effected  a stroke  of  busi- 
ness which  will  make  for  enhanced  satisfaction  in 
the  postal  service. 

Mr.  Kelly  is  affiliated  with  the  Eighteenth  As- 
sembly Ditsrict  Democratic  Association,  and  other 
bodies  of  a social  and  fraternal  character.  He  is 
a well-known  member  of  Brooklyn  Lodge  No.  22, 

B.  P.  O.  E. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  married  to  Miss 
Anna  Hanrahan  of  Brooklyn  on  September  5,  1900. 
They  have  two  children,  Edward  and  Adele  Kelly, 
both  of  whom  are  now  attending  school. 


1 


60 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


CHARLES  B.  LAW, 

For  Justice  of  the  Municipal  Court,  Seventh  restrict. 


\ 


Eagle  Library — SPEECHES  OF,  WOODROW  WILSON 


51  1 


muniuvav/iosnimuiv 


MELVILLE  J.  FRANCE 

United  States  Attorney  for  the  Eastern  District  of  New  York 

was  born  in  the  Seventh  Ward  of 
the  old  City  of  Brooklyn  in  1878. 

He  is  the  son  of  Thomas  J.  and 
Addie  Clark  France.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools  of  the 
City  of  Brooklyn,  having  been 
graduated  from  Public  School  No. 

45  in  1892  and  from  the  Boys’ 

High  School  in  1896.  In  the  latter 
year  he  entered  Columbia  College 
and  in  1900  received  the  degree  of 
A.  B.  from  that  institution.  In  the 
fall  of  1900  he  was  appointed  a 
teacher  of  history  and  English  in 
the  Brooklyn  Boys’  High  School, 
being  the  first  graduate  thereof  to 
become  one  of  its  teaching  staff. 

While  so  engaged  Mr.  France  at- 
tended the  evening  division  of  the 
New  York  Law  School,  from  which 
he  was  graduated  in  1902.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1902  and  in 
the  fall  of  that  year  resigned  his 
position  in  the  Brooklyn  Boys’ 

High  School  and  entered  the  law 
offices  of  Daily  & Bell  in  the  Bor- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

library 


ough  of  Brooklyn,  with  which  firm 
and  its  successor,  Daily  & Wil- 
liams, he  was  associated  until  1907, 
when  he  entered  upon  the  practice 
of  law  independently.  In  1904  Mr. 
France  was  married  to  Miss  Annie 
F.  Wilson.  During  the  years  1907 
and  1908  he  was  an  instructor  in 
the  Brooklyn  Law  School  (St.  Law- 
rence University).  In  1911  Mr. 
France  was  one  of  the  organizers 
and  an  officer  of  the  Woodrow 
Wilson  Committee  in  Brooklyn, 
the  first  organization  formed  in 
Kings  County  to  promote  the 
nomination  of  Mr.  Wilson  for 
President.  In  1914  Mr.  France 
was  appointed  by  Mayor  Mitchel 
Assistant  Corporation  Counsel  in 
Charge  of  the  Bureau  of  Street 
Openings  in  the  Borough  of 
Brooklyn.  In  1915  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  his  present  position  by 
President  Wilson.  In  politics  Mr. 
France  has  always  been  an  inde- 
pendent Democrat. 


52 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


PATRICK  H.  QUINN 

U.  S.  Shipping  Commissioner 
Port  of  New  York 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


63 


John  MacCrate 


Republican  Candidate  for  Register  of  Kings  County 

Lawyer,  Graduate  of  Commercial  H.  S.  and  New  York  University 
, Law  School. 

Member  of  Brooklyn  Bar  Association,  Crosstown  Subway  League, 
Greenpoint  Taxpayers  and  Citizens  Association,  Greenpoint  Lodge, 
F.  and  A.  M.;  Greenpoint  Lodge  Knights  of  Pythias,  Court  Hecla, 
F.  of  A.;  Local  School  Board,  No.  34.  - 


i 


V*'  - 


! 


54 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


HENRY  P.  KEITH 


Henry  P.  Keith,  born  December  19, 
1876,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  Attended  Pub- 
lic Schools  Nos.  11  and  12,  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.;  Bryant  School  at  Roslyn,  L.  I., 
and  Hempstead  Institute  at  Hemp- 
stead, L.  I.,  Columbia  College  Law 
School,  member  of  the  “class  of 

1897. ” 

Admitted  to  the  Bar  February, 

1898.  Engaged  in  practice  at  the  law 
offices  of  Sheehan  & Collin,  32  Nas- 
sau street,  New  York  City,  and  168 
Montague  street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

On  January  1,  1899,  appointed  As- 
sistant District  Attorney  under  James 
P.  Niemann  of  Nassau  County.  On 
May  1,  1900,  appointed  Deputy  As- 
sistant District  Attorney  of  New 
York  County  by  District  Attorney 
Asa  Bird  Gardiner. 

On  January  1,  1901,  reappointed 
by  District  Attorney  Eugene  A.  Phil- 
bin. 

Served  as  attorney  for  State  Con- 
troller during  administration  of  Mar- 
tin H.  Glynn,  and  during  a part  of  the 
administration  of  William  Sohmer. 
Served  at  various  times  as  County  At- 
torney of  Nassau  County.  Counsel  to 
the  Board  of  Supervisors  of  Nassau 
County.  Counsel  for  the  Town  Board 
of  the  town  of  Hempstead,  and  as 


village  attorney  for  the  village  of 
Hempstead. 

Appointed  Collector  of  Internal 
Revenue  by  President  Wilson  on  the 
14th  day  of  August,  1914. 

Independent  organization  Demo- 
crat in  politics.  Leader  of  Democratic 
party  in  Nassau  County  from  1896 
until  September  1,  1914,  when  he  re- 
signed to  accept  position  of  Collector 
Internal  Revenue,  First  District  of 
New  York. 

Member  of  Democratic  State  Com- 
mittee for  Nassau  and  Suffolk  Coun- 
ties from  April,  1912,  to  September 
26,  1914.  Successfully  resisted  at- 
tempt of  Charles  F.  Murphy  and 
Tammany  Hall  to  control  Democratic 
affairs  of  Nassau  and  Suffolk  Coun- 
ties after  three  severe  primary  fights. 

Member  of  so  called  “Rochester 
Conference”  and  of  the  Committee  of 
Five,  together  with  Robert  Lansing, 
now  Secretary  of  State;  George  Reil- 
ley  of  Buffalo,  Jacob  L.  Ten  Eyck  of 
Albany,  and  Charles  F.  Rattigan  of 
Auburn,  which  committee  drew  up 
and  prepared  the  resolutions  that 
were  adopted  by  said  conference. 

Member  of  the  Bar  Association  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  National  Dem- 
ocratic Club,  Brooklyn  Club,  Beta 
Theta  Pi  Club,  South  Shore  Yacht 
Club,  Wheatley  Hills  Golf  Club  and 
Freeport  Lodge  of  Elks. 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


55 


THOMAS  F.  WOGAN 

Stamp  C-'anceler  erf  the  Port  of  Nev  York 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


56 


People’s  Choice 


★ For  Regular  Democratic  Nomination  ★ 


For  Alderman 

Of  the  42d  Aldermanic  District 
of  Brooklyn 


For  Assemblyman 

Of  the  2d  Assembly  District 


JAMES  J.  BROWNE 


WILLIAM  J.  GILLEN 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


57 


Judge  John  F.  Hylan 


Kings  County  Court 


58 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


In  the  appointment  of  James  M. 
Power  as  United  States  Marshal  for 
the  Eastern  District  of  New  York  Pres- 
ident Wilson  received  the  commenda- 
tion of  hundreds  of  Brooklyn’s  fore- 
most citizens,  regardless  of  their  polit- 
ical affiliations.  Previous  to  his  ap- 
pointment in  the  Federal  service  Mr. 
Power  was  attached  to  the  office  of 
the  Borough  President  of  Brooklyn  for 
nine  years.  Although  first  appointed 
by  a Fusion  administration  he  was 
held  over  by  the  two  succeeding  ad- 
ministrations. Borough  President  Lewis 
H.  Pounds,  a Republican,  who  reap- 
pointed Mr.  Power  to  his  third  term  as 
secretary  to  the.  Commissioner  of  Pub- 
lic Works,  made  a public  statement  at  a 
testimonial  dinner  given  in  honor  of 
the  new  Marshal  shortly  after  his  ap- 
pointment, in  which  he  said  he  great- 
ly regretted  his  loss  in  the  Borough 
administration,  and  that  the  city’s  loss 
in  that  respect  was  the  Federal  govern- 
ment’s gain.  He  stated  in  the  strong- 
est of  terms  that  Mr.  Power  in  his 
opinion  was  the  most  competent  and 
conscientious  employee  in  the  city  ser- 
vice. These  words  coming  from  the 
head  of  the  Borough  where  Mr.  Power 
has  lived  since  childhood,  although  of 
an  opposite  political  faith,  show  plainly 
the  manner  in  which  the  news  of  his 
appointment  by  the  President  and  con- 
firmation by  the  Senate  was  received 
in  Brooklyn. 

Mr.  Power  was  born  in  Blissville, 
Long  Island,  October  8,  1883,  the  son 
of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  C.  and  the  late  John 
F.  Power.  When  a child  his  family 
moved  to  East  New  York.  They  settled 
in  what  is  now  known  as  Brownsville. 
At  that  time  it  was  nothing  but  farms 
and  vacant  land.  Shortly  after  ar- 
riving in  Brooklyn  Mr.  Power  went  into 
the  building  business.  He  erected  the 
first  tenement  in  Brownsville.  Follow- 
ing his  death  the  Marshal,  who  was  the 
oldest  of  four  boys  and  two  girls,  as- 
sumed the  head  of  the  family.  His 
first  position  was  as  a Wall  street  mes- 
*snger.  While  delivering  messages  he 
came  in  contact  with  former  Borough 
President  Bird  S.  Coler,  who  has  a 
brokerage  office  in  Manhattan.  Coler 


JAMES  M.  POWER. 

United  States  Marshal  for  the  Eastern 
Distriet  of  New  York. 

took  a liking  to  the  young  messenger 
and  gave  him  a clerical  position  in  his 
office.  Later  when  Mr.  Coler  was 
elected  Borough  President  of  Brooklyn 
on  the  Fusion  ticket  he  created  the 
position  of  confidential  inspector  in 
the  Borough  President’s  office  for  Mr. 
Power.  Before  the  end  of  his  term  he 
promoted  him  to  be  secretary  to  the 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works,  one  of 
the  most  important  posts  in  the  Bor- 
ough administration.  Magistrate  Alfred 
E.  Steers  succeeded  Mr.  Coler  as  Pres- 
ident of  the  Borough.  His  first  ap- 
pointment was  that  of  the  present 
Borough  President  Lewis  H.  Pounds  to 
the  office  of  Commissioner  of  Public 
Works.  Pounds  announced  that  he 
would  retain  Mr.  Power  as  his  secretary 
temporarily  until  he  got  used  to  the 
workings  of  the  office.  The  new  Com- 
missioner soon  realized  that  the  ser- 
vices of  Secretary  Power  were  indis- 
pensable, and  announced  that  he  would 
retain  him  for  the  entire  term.  Four 


years  later  when  Mr.  Pounds  was 
elected  to  the  Borough  Presidency  on 
the  Republican  ticket  he  asked  Mr. 
Power  to  remain  a member  of  his  Cab- 
inet, which  he  accepted.  Shortly  after 
being  reappointed  by  President  Pounds 
Mr.  Power  was  elected  Democratic 
executive  member  of  the  Twenty-third 
Assembly  District  over  the  opposition 
of  the  local  organization.  Although 
the  youngest  and  one  of  the  latest  ad- 
ditions to  the  State  Committee.he  soon 
proved  that  he  was  a valuable  asset 
to  that  committee.  When  President 
Wilson  decided  to  appoint  a new  Mar- 
shal for  Brooklyn,  Long  Island  and 
Staten  Island,  Mr.  Power’s  name  was 
submitted  with  such  strong  indorse- 
ments that  the  National  Administra- 
tion sent  for  him  and  the  day  after  his 
arrival  in  Washington  Attorney  General 
Gregory  recommended  his  appointment 
to  the  President.  The  latter  immediate- 
ly sent  the  name  of  Mr.  Power  to  the 
Senate,  and  it  was  unanimously  con- 
firmed. Mr.  Power  went  into  his  new 
office  with  the  same  spirit  that  made 
his  9 years  in  the  Borough  administra- 
tion a success.  He  took  more  than  two 
months  to  select  his  staff  of  deputies, 
and  the  Marshal’s  office  in  Brooklyn  is 
now  looked  upon  by  the  Washington 
authorities,  as  well  as  the  people  of 
Brooklyn,  as  one  of  the  greatest  assets 
to  the  Wilson  administration. 

Mr.  Power  lives  with  his  mother  at 
1 387  Herkimer  street.  He  received  his 
early  education  at  P.  S.  Nos.  66  and  84 
in  Brownsville  and  St.  Malachy’s 
Parochial  School  in  East  New  York. 
He  is  a member  of  Brooklyn  Lodge, 
No.  22,  B.  P.  0.  Elks;  Long  Island 
Council,  No.  197,  Knights  of  Colum- 
bus; Brooklyn  Civic  Club,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Orphan  Asylum,  Emerald  and 
St.  Patrick  Societies.  His  mother  is  a 
sister  of  the  late  Elections  Commis- 
sioner John  Maguire,  who  was  Demo- 
cratic leader  in  East  New  York  for 
many  years.  He  is  also  the  nephew  of 
the  Rev.  William  J.  Maguire,  pastor  of 
the  Church  of  the  Transfiguration, 
Brooklyn.  He  married  Miss  Alice  M. 
Smith  on  November  15,  1911,  and  had 
one  child,  a boy,  both  of  whom  died 
three  years  later. 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


59 


Why  the 

Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle 

Is  the  Best 

Real  Estate  Medium 

C]J  It  publishes  the  most  accurate  and 
complete  News  of  the  Realty  Market  and 
is  the  accepted  authority  on  Brooklyn  and 
Long  Island  Real  Estate  matters. 

^ Investors,  Home  Buyers  and  Rent  Payers 
everywhere  read  the  EAGLE  when  con- 
sidering a Home  or  Investment  in  any  part 
of  Long  Island. 

CJ  Its  circulation  is  among  people  with  pur- 
chasing power,  and  its  advertising  rates  are 
the  lowest — Results  considered. 

It  Is  the  Representative  Daily 
Newspaper  of  All  Long  Island 

1 J 


60 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


Use  STARS  AND  STRIPES  Candles 
The  Genuine  Safety  Night  Light 

Bright,  Clean,  Odorless,  Smokeless,  Sparkless,  Hygienic,  Sanitary 
Be  Sure  and  Ask  for  “Stars  and  Stripes”  Candles 
Accept  no  Substitute 

Warranted  to  burn  1 0 hours.  Price  1 cent  each.  Glass  container,  will  ; 
not  blacken  or  crack,  5 cents.  Can  be  had  at  all  grocers,  or  send  25  ' 

cents  for  box  of  20  candles  and  glass  holder,  to 

SAFETY  NIGHT  LIGHT  CO. 

147  JACKSON  STREET,  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 


COLONIAL  VAN  COMPANY 
Fireproof  Storage  Warehouse 

TELEPHONE  5110  BUSHWICK 

FURNITURE  and  PIANOS  MOVED  and  STORED 

AT  LOWEST  RATES 

ALL  WORK  DONE  WITH  AUTO  VANS 

LICENSED  PIANO  MOVERS 
OUT  OF  TOWN  MOVING  OUR  SPECIALTY 
Packing  and  Shipping  to  All  Parts  of  the  World 

BEFORE  YOU  MOVE  GET  OUR  ESTIMATES 

Write  or  Phone  and  We  Will  Send  Our  Representative 

Cor.  Gates  and  St.  Nicholas  Aves., 

BROOKLYN,  New  York. 


MATTHEWS  PIANO  WAREROOMS 

FRANCIS  S.  MATTHEWS,  Proprietor 

PLANOS,  PLAYER-PIANOS  and  TALKING  MACHINES 

Brooklyn  representative  for  the  famous  Krakauer,  Christman  and  W.  P.  Haines  & Co.  Pianos 
and  Player-Pianos.  Sold  on  easy  terms  if  desired. 

We  specialize  in  fine  Repairing,  Refinishing  and  Rebuilding  of  Pianos.  Lost  tone  restored. 
Player  mechanisms  built  into  any  piano  at  reasonable  cost.  Send  card,  representative  will  call. 

422  GATES  AVE.,  NEAR  NOSTRAND  AVE. 

Phone  3859-W  Bedford Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


GEORGE  W.  CHAUNCEY,  President  THOMAS  HOVENDEN,  Treasurer 

CORNELIUS  E.  DONNELLON,  Vice  President  JOHN  R.  RYON,  Secretary 

THE  CHAUNCEY  REAL  ESTATE  CO. » 

FIRM  ESTABLISHED  1843 

187  Montague  Street,  Borough  of  Brooklyn,  New  York  City 

EVERY  BRANCH  OF  THE  REAL  ESTATE 
BUSINESS  A SPECIALTY 

Telephones  4300-4301-4302  Main 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


61 


Andrew  Carnegie 


once  said : 


i t 


o 


THER  men’s  brains  have  made 
me  rich — I seldom  fail  to  read 
their  catalogs.  *Tis  said  I've  more 
money  than  some.  If  so,  'tis  because 
I've  had  more  courage  than  some.  1 
let  the  slow-coaches  use  the  old  ma- 
chine— mine  1 chucked  into  the  scrap- 
heap — quick.  • f • ; 

“The  latest  machine  I bought  from 
the  latest  catalog.  That  plan  is  the 

earliest  by  which  to  make  money  in  a 

> - — 

staple  business. 

“There's  brains  in  catalogs — but 
only  for  brains.'' 


r Try  the  stimulating  effect  of  Catalogs  in  pushing 
your  business.  We’ll  be  glad  to  talk  it  over  with 
you,  suggest  styles  and  quote  prices. 

. P ‘ ■ 

■ nm.ni  T 

T 


BROOKLYN  EAGLE  PRESS 


1 


BIT 


62 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


rV5r\tf7’  -£7 '<£7 ‘£7'*S* -^7 .£? V57 .^r .^7 .^7 ■^7^27-Z7  ‘£7 -£7  £7  ‘7?  *&} 


Thirty=five  Greenhouses 


HORTICULTURIST 

734  Fifth  Avenue 

Branches:  Fort  Hamilton  Parkway, 

TELEPHONES— 27  South,  3410  Flatbush.  Gravesend  Av.,  and  291-313  24th  St. 

PLOTS  IN  GREENWOOD  CEMETERY  IMPROVED  AND  CARED  FOR. 

Palms, Vines  and  Fresh  Flowers 

Supplied  and  Artistically  Arranged  for  Weddings  at  Reasonable  Rates 


7Z-sZ_-ZZ-  t 


GRAVEL  ROOFING  A SPECIALTY 


Steel  Portable  Buildings  Fireproof  Garages 

m MANUFACTURED  IN  BROOKLYN 

WILLIAM  BUCHANAN 

488-490-490%  Sumner  Avenue  1587  Fulton  Street,  Brooklyn 


63 


/ 

Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  07  'E^OTROW  WILSON 


EAGLE  LIBRARIES 

In  Preparation  to  Be 
Issued  in  September 

New  Municipal  Court  Code  with  annotations  and  new 
rules  of  the  Appellate  Term  of  First  and  Second  Depart- 
ments. This  will  be  in  handy  form  and  of  value  to  every 
lawyer. 

ELECTTONLAW 

OF 

New  York  State 
Amended  to  Date 

If  you  are  not  familiar  with  Eagle  publications  subscribe 
now  to  The  Eagle  Library.  $1.50  a year,  including  The 
Eagle  Almanac. 

NEW  YORK  CITY'S 
RED  BOOK 


5% 
IV  M 


64 


Eagle  Library— SPEECHES  OF  WOODROW  WILSON 


Imperial 


360  FULTON  STREET 

Opposite  Pearl,  Brooklyn 

Telephone,  4137  Main 


JOSEPH  SCHMIDT,  Manager 


LARGE  HALL  FOR  BALLS 
BANQUETS,  CONCERTS 
THEATRICAL  PERFORM- 
ANCES, CARD  PARTIES, ETC. 


Restaurant  a la  Carte 

» 

Excellent  Cuisine 


• vWVVVVVVWVWVW»VVWVVVVV‘»VVVVVVVVVlWWl,»^>> 


'r 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3 0112  1140251 


